Flight
by rudeboy1971
Summary: Bianca and Maggie are in a full relationship, but what now? How will the normal upsanddowns any relationship must face? Fifth in a series.
1. Chapter 1

Prologue

The time since "The Guy Kachel Incident", as it came to be known, had passed quickly. Maggie stayed at home, nursing her hand, which had turned all sorts of interesting colors. Bianca had gone back to work full time, but was making it home early each night so she could spend some time with Miranda and Maggie. While Bianca had returned to sleeping in her own bedroom, Bianca and Maggie's "good night" ritual seemed to be lengthening, neither really wishing to part with the other.

Patrick and Guilia had survived their first full day together in ten years, and it seemed to have made Patrick remember how much he truly loved his wife. They were going to be trying, at least for a little bit, to spend more time together. Patrick had also been given a reprieve on having his mobile phone stuffed in an unfortunate place when a compromise had been reached. He could send texts for short communications, but phone calls after 9:30 PM, were now strictly forbidden.

Guy was to be found each morning standing across the street from the Cambias building, taking pictures of Bianca's comings and goings. No one was sure why that was picture worthy, but since they had effectively shut him down from sneaking pictures at the penthouse, there wasn't much else for him to do.

Act I: Ascent

Chapter 1

July 10th – 10:03 PM

Bianca and Maggie had stayed in for the weekend. Maggie really had not relished the thought of having Bianca have to cut her food for her in public while her right hand was still in bandages. They were quite content though watching movies, playing with Miranda, cuddling on the couch, stealing the odd kiss here or there. There was one thing in all of this that puzzled Bianca, and she was feeling the need for an answer…what were they now?

Maggie had started referring to their 'relationship', but there hadn't seemed to be a good time to discuss it yet. Bianca had looked for the right time all weekend to broach the subject, but none had ever presented itself. Even now wasn't good as Maggie walked back in to the kitchen, finishing up a call with Patrick.

"Yeah, that works for me…this is so going to rock…ok, yeah…see you in the morning. Bonne nuit!" Maggie clicked the phone off and looked at Bianca. "What?"

Bianca realized her jaw was slacked a little. "Nothing, I just haven't really heard you so casually slip French into a conversation without your face getting all screwed up in concentration before."

Maggie snorted a laugh as she slipped her phone back in her pocket and walked over to the refrigerator to take a peak inside. "Oh please, I was only saying good night. I hope I can handle at least that much after being here five months."

"Well, it's a step in the right direction," Bianca said with a smile. "So, why are you seeing Patrick in the morning?"

Maggie retrieved a small package of strawberries from the fridge, shut the door, and walked over to the sink to rinse them off. "Well I wanted to talk to you about that. As much as I disliked the shopping trip the other day, I really didn't get to finish and I was hoping the offer was still open to do that." She flicked the faucet on with her left hand, and washed off a couple strawberries, one handed, as she talked. "I also need to see the health center at the Cambias building about getting my hand looked at again."

Bianca smirked. "I thought you didn't like the idea of me buying you all new clothes."

"I'm still not thrilled about the idea, but I kinda got halfway done and I'm going to look pretty funny mixing two distinctly different wardrobes together."

Bianca's smirk softened to a warm smile. "Of course you can continue shopping. Do you want to take Miranda to the office and leave her with me while you're out?"

Maggie shook off the strawberries, put them in a bowl, and shut off the water. "Actually, Guilia said she could come over with Patrick in the morning and watch her. She has tomorrow off and she'd love to see her."

"Good, well, it's all settled then. You can just ride in to work with me." Bianca watched Maggie trying to juggle a bowl of strawberries and the bag to be put away, all in one hand. "Here, you go and sit down; I'll put the strawberries away."

Maggie smiled and let her take the bag from her. She went over and sat down at the butcher block, and picked up a strawberry, biting in to half of it while she watched Bianca bend over into the fridge. She gulped hard and loudly at the sight. As Bianca turned to look at what the sound was, Maggie made a fist with her left hand and hit her chest like she was choking.

"You ok?" she asked, running over to pat her friend on the back.

"Yeah…wrong pipe…fine now," Maggie said, smiling weakly.

Bianca gave her back one final rub with the palm of her hand and then walked over to the other side of the block to sit down. She picked up the copy of _French Vogue_ she'd been looking at earlier and started flipping through it again while Maggie perused a newspaper and ate her strawberries.

There was an odd domestic comfort to the scene. No one felt a pressure to entertain the other, no one felt the urge to fill the silence with talking, it was just two good friends, relaxing before starting another week.

No matter how comfortable it was, Bianca couldn't stop going over in her head about what to do along the course of asking Maggie what exactly their status was. Was it really that important to know, or could she just go along at this comfortable pace with her? She reached for her glass of wine she had been nursing off-and-on and lifted it to her lips to take a sip. As she did, she peaked over the top of her magazine at Maggie.

The shorter girl had a strawberry resting between her lips like she had forgotten it was there while reading an article. Her lips were forming a perfect 'O' and she was absentmindedly sucking on it so the strawberry moved up and down ever so slightly. When she did finally take a bite out of it, the bite was long and drawn out, a slight sucking sound as her teeth parted the strawberry in half, her top row of teeth beginning the bite.

Bianca sat there, her wine glass suspended in mid-air, having never quite made it to her lips, her mouth slightly agape, her mind going places that were wholly inappropriate when it came to someone she wasn't even 100 sure was her girlfriend yet. She finally snapped back to reality, shifted on her stool and took a deep gulp from her wine glass.

If she had looked at Maggie while taking the drink, instead of at the ceiling, she might have caught what could be mistaken for a self-satisfied smirk pass over her friend's face.

July 10th – 11:00 PM

Bianca was starting to refer to this time of night as "The Awkward Hour". It followed its own little play-like script as they would spend time in the kitchen, do pointless little chores that didn't need to be done right then, if at all, each girl seemingly sizing the other up. Which would give in first and go for a good night kiss? Which girl's defenses would drop first? She kept expecting to find a nature documentary crew camped in the corner of the room, whispering about their mating dance as they filmed it for further study.

Maggie slapped her left palm against the front of her thigh, scanned the kitchen with her eyes, before issuing her nightly proclamation. "Well…looks like everything's washed up, guess I'll head to bed…" she pointed with her left index finger "and, I'll see you bright and early in the morning to head to the Cambias building."

The taller girl smiled at her warmly. "Are you sure you can pull your behind out of bed that early? You're still on summer vacation after all."

The shorter girl gave a feigned expression of being wounded from the comment and put her left hand flat on her chest. "Are you trying to imply that I, your daughter's care giver, am a lazy ass?"

"It would appear so, yes," she replied with a grin.

Maggie opened her mouth to reply, but found she was actually taken off guard by the honest reply. "Well…ok then…so long as we have that clear."

Both girls laughed and moved towards each other, their arms open for a hug. It always seemed as if it took some laughter to break the awkward tension of uncertainty between them. The hug certainly lasted longer than one between 'just friends' should, but after they pulled back slightly, their arms were still around one another as they stared into each other's eyes which were quickly darting around, searching for signs of their intentions. Finally satisfied with whatever it is they may have been looking for, they leaned in and shared a lengthy, passionate kiss.

As each girl pulled back, their eyes remained closed, but they had small grins on their faces.

"You taste like strawberries," said Bianca dreamily.

"And you taste like a chardonnay," was Maggie's speedy reply.

As with everything between these ladies, it always seemed to end in someone making a joke. They gave each other one quick last peck on the lips, and parted ways for the night - Bianca pondering when she would finally have the courage to ask Maggie where they were in their relationship, and Maggie wondering why Bianca hadn't questioned her yet.

July 11th – 8:45 AM

"Patrick…" Bianca said looking up from the folders in her lap, "this isn't the normal route to work."

"Just trying a different route today ma'am," Patrick said through the privacy window of the limo.

Bianca squinted her eyes and looked at Maggie, who was smirking. "Maggie…why did you bring your camera today?"

"No reason," she answered while shrugging. "Just thought I'd snap a few pictures."

"Of what?" Bianca asked, her tone betraying her distrust.

"Oh, you know, the architecture, the shops…touristy kind of stuff."

"Uh-huh…something you haven't done once since we moved here." She closed the folder she had been reading, folded her arms across her chest, and learned back in to the seat. "What are you two up to?"

"Nothing! Can't a girl bring a camera with her and can't Patrick take a new route to work? You're so suspicious." Maggie had to look away for fear of laughing.

"Yeah…you two are up to something and I want to know what it is."

Patrick pulled over to the curb of a side street, right next to an alley. "Here you are Maggie."

"Thanks, see you in a few!" Maggie said as she bolted out of the limo's back seat, slammed the door as she stepped out, and took off running down the alley at full speed.

"Oh yeah, you two are totally not up to anything," Bianca said as Patrick pulled back in to traffic and headed towards the Cambias building. Bianca really knew something was out of order when they made a right turn that took them directly past Guy Kachel's usual corner as opposed to avoiding it completely.

The limo swung in to the underground parking garage of the Cambias building and took the first available parking spot. Patrick quickly jumped from the car and ran to open Bianca's door. "Come with me, I think you'll want to see this."

Having no clue what was going on, she followed Patrick up the sloped ramp that led back to street level, and stood in the shadows where he told her to. She could see through the decorative cut-out designs in the wall, Guy was scanning the building with his lens, looking for anything interesting to take pictures of.

Patrick's phone rang, he quickly answered. "Hello? Yes…any time now." He clicked it off.

At the corner where Guy stood, Bianca spotted Maggie creeping up slowly from behind him. He was too absorbed in his own camera to notice anything. Maggie positioned herself directly behind Guy and leaped at him suddenly. "A-HA! The infamous Guy Kachel hard at work, being a slime ball."

She whipped her camera up and started mimicking a paparazzo, which wasn't easy with only one working hand. "Oh yes, Guy, make love to the camera! Show me anger! Show me rage! Come on, the camera loves you!"

Guy was reeling backwards, trying to catch his balance, having been shocked by Maggie appearing from nowhere. He swore at her in a wide range of French words, and then switched to English for her benefit. "Identity theft or not, I am going to get a restraining order against you! Get away from me you little witch!"

"Oh yes! Yes! The camera loves you Guy!"

Guy started to run away, the opposite direction from which Maggie had jumped at him; she chased him a short distance, the entire time screaming "GUY! THE CAMERA LOVES YOU GUY!"

Bianca had tears streaming down her face and had her hands pressed against her stomach she was laughing so hard.

Patrick was grinning from ear-to-ear.

Once Bianca had regained her composure, she muttered "God, I love her," meaning it more for herself than the world. When she turned to look up at Patrick to see if they could go, he was looking down at her with a grin. "Oh you be quiet, like you hadn't figured that out ages ago," she said scowling and turning around to march back down into the depths of the building.

Patrick shoved his hands in his pants pockets and followed her. "Unborn children can figure it out Bianca, but does she know it?"

Bianca stopped and turned to look at him hard. "Have you ever met a woman named Myrtle Fargate?"

"No…why?"

"Because you sound just like her." Bianca turned and continued her walk towards the elevators.

"All I'm saying is, what good does it do the two of you if you are the only one to know it for a fact that you love her."

"And I'm saying I think we are still in a stage where we don't even know if we are truly in a relationship yet. If I go dropping the 'L' bomb on her, it could get messy in a hurry."

"True, it would be best to know what you are to each other first."

"Patrick…look," Bianca turned towards him having reached the elevator, "I know you care for both of us, and I promise you, as soon as I feel it's the right time, I'll first ask her where we stand and then secondly, and down the road some, I'll make sure she knows exactly how I feel."

"Feel about what?" Maggie asked, running up to them, out of breath.

Bianca looked at her "About you running around getting sweaty before you hit high end boutiques with a Cambias credit card, that's what."

Maggie grinned, holding up her bag she had retrieved from the limo. "See, I may be a Stone, but I'm not as dense as one. I brought a change of clothes with me."

Bianca rolled her eyes skyward in frustration as the elevator dinged, signaling its arrival. Patrick held the door for Maggie and Bianca to get on, and he joined them, ascending towards Bianca's office. "Well, we'll get you changed, get your hand checked on, and then you and Patrick can head out for more shopping."

"Oh good, there's this one shop I really think I want to go back to…" Maggie said, smirking.

Patrick groaned.

July 11th – 9:30 PM

Bianca walked back in to the kitchen from having just put Miranda to bed. She expected to find Maggie in her usual spot at the butcher block, but she wasn't to be seen. She turned to look; the lights were out in the library and the den and the dining room was clearly empty. Bianca wasn't quite sure where her friend had disappeared to.

"Damn it!" came a muffled, but still audible shout from Maggie's room.

"Well, there's that mystery solved," Bianca said, chuckling, as she walked towards the servant's quarters door. She made a quick rapping on the door. "Maggie? Everything okay in there?"

"Yeah, you come in here for a minute?"

Bianca opened the door and cautiously looked in, not totally sure of what to expect. She saw Maggie standing in front of her armoire, the door open, looking in the full length mirror that hung on the inside portion. She was wearing one of the outfits she had purchased that afternoon, trying, in vain, to button the top.

"Hey…could you help me with this?" Maggie asked, addressing Bianca's reflection in the mirror.

Bianca smiled and walked over to her friend. "Of course. Are you heading out somewhere?"

Maggie smiled and turned towards her friend so she could reach the buttons easier. "Oh no, I just wanted to try on some of these clothes I got today."

Bianca eyed the pile of clothes on the bed as she walked by. She was shocked by the muted colors, subtle patterns, and heavier fabrics than she was unused to seeing Maggie wear. Dare she say it? Was she seeing the emergence of a more mature, fashion conscious Maggie Stone? "So, what seems to be the problem here?" Bianca asked with a smile.

"My stupid bandaged hand is the problem! I can't fasten these tiny buttons with this thing on!" she said, holding up her hand for inspection.

Bianca grinned and started fastening the buttons of the blouse for her friend, making sure to pull the blouse away from her skin for fear of 'improper' contact. "They said only for a couple more days and then you can take it off."

"Yeah yeah…damn nuisance is what it is."

"And whose fault is that?" Bianca tightened her mouth in to a line of seeming disapproval, while lifting her hands to smooth out the shoulders of Maggie's blouse.

"Mine." Maggie mumbled as she turned to look at herself in the mirror. It was a simple outfit, a loose, floor length khaki skirt, a simple button-up blue top, and an American western style belt that hung low and met at an angle. "So…what do you think?"

"I think it is exactly the sort of outfit I was describing to you. I love it!"

Maggie beamed with pride. "Thanks!" She walked over towards the bed, studying the pile of clothes, and flipping through a few of the items at the top. "Hey, if you aren't busy, would you mind helping me with a couple more?"

"Sure!" Bianca walked over and studied the mass of outfits before her. "How about…" she flipped through the assortment of clothes for a moment "this one!" It was a dark green, plaid dress, but with a belt, it would almost look like a separate skirt and top.

"Yeah, I liked that one a lot."

"Me too, very subtle, but still fun." She set it down and helped Maggie unbutton the blouse she had on, again being careful of her contact. "Ok, there you go. Let me know when you need help again." And she turned to look away.

There was silence for a moment. "Bianca?"

"Yes?"

"Why in the world did you turn away?"

"I just thought you might want some privacy, that's all"

"Oh please, like you haven't seen me change clothes a thousand times."

Bianca could hear the rustling of clothes now as they talked. "I know, but….it almost seems different now somehow."

"Because we've been dating?"

Bianca gulped, not sure if she was quite ready to pursue the conversation that had been weighing on her mind for a while now "I suppose so…"

"Bianca…look, just because the nature of our relationship has changed, it doesn't mean we stop being two girlie friends that have shared clothes, go shopping, and get all misty eyed watching _Casablanca_ together anymore." There was a slight pause. "Ok, ready, you can turn around."

Bianca had to fight back her gasping breath. This outfit buttoned much further down, she hadn't noticed that when she picked it out for her to try it on. She tentatively reached down and started buttoning the dress. "Look…I know we're still friends first and foremost, and I know we've only been on two dates, but I guess…I'm just confused about some things."

Maggie leaned down slightly and tipped Bianca's chin up with her left hand so she could look into her eyes. "Like where we stand?"

"Yes…like where we stand."

"I wondered when you were going to ask me. Here…sit down for a minute." Maggie shoved some of the clothes aside, making a space for them on the edge of the bed. They sat down next to each other; Maggie turned more to her side so she could face Bianca. "Look, it's not like I haven't been thinking about this too, I mean, you have to have noticed all the different terms I've used to describe us. 'Relationship', 'dating', 'couple'…I don't know exactly what we are yet, but I think it's safe to assume we're more than just friends, but we aren't up to…up to…" she was searching for the right word.

"Lovers."

Now it was Maggie's turn to blush slightly. "Correct…'lovers'. But short of that, I think it's safe to say we have moved past simple friendship and entered a whole new area, for us at least. Does it really need a term though?"

"No, not necessarily." Now it was Bianca's turn to pause and search for words. She looked down at her hands lying in her lap, her fingers nervously fumbling with each other. "I guess I'm just too organized, I like to categorize everything in my life. Everything clearly labeled, put away properly, and easily accessible."

Maggie instinctively lifted her left hand and bunched together the material on her still open dress at the last portion of that comment. She chuckled, "If only life was always that easy." Bianca said nothing but continued to look down at her lap. Maggie bit her lower lip. "So, you do need to know then?"

"I guess…I'm sorry, I know it's silly." She threw her head back and stared at the ceiling, her voice becoming noticeably exasperated. "I mean, really, who has this conversation after two dates?"

"Us. We're not always known for our subtlety, or normalcy, Bianca."

Bianca had to laugh at that. "True."

Maggie sat there, obviously in thought for a moment, Bianca resumed staring at her lap while she waited for Maggie to say something. The shorter girl did open her mouth once, as if about to say something, but then closed it again to reflect some more. "If I had to call us something…I would say we're a couple…a couple in the early stages of a relationship, where we're still feeling each other out."

Bianca blushed a deep crimson.

"Okay, that had to be the worst choice of words in the history of man!" Maggie said, turning bright red herself and rocking backwards from Bianca while trying to look away.

"It's ok, I get what you're saying….so, I could, if you're ok with it that is, call you my 'girlfriend'?"

Maggie leaned back to her original upright position, and then leaned further forward, putting her face directly in front of Bianca's. Maggie's lopsided, mischievous grin slowly crept across her face as she looked up in to Bianca's dark eyes. "I would be honored for you to call me that."

Bianca grinned sheepishly now, obviously relieved at having finally gotten this subject out of the way. "I'm going to hold you to that you know."

"I hope that you would." She leaned up and gave Bianca a deep kiss. Once done, they sat there, their foreheads touching for a moment. "Now, would you mind helping your girlfriend out with putting her clothes on?"

"Sigh…the story of my life…the girlfriends always wanting me to help them put their clothes on them instead of taking them off," she said as she stood up.

Maggie's jaw dropped as she stood up. "Why Bianca Christine Montgomery, you dirty thing you….I think I like that side of you!" she said, her lopsided grin once again returning. "Now…button me up."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

July 14th – 6:20 PM

The elevator to the penthouse floor dinged, signaling the car's arrival. The doors slid open with a low rumble and Bianca pushed her young daughter's stroller over the gap into the hallway.

"I could be doing that you know," remarked Maggie.

"I know, but why push your luck? You just got the bandages off, why take the chance of over working your hand already?"

"Fine," Maggie said with a disgruntled tone as she rummaged in her purse for her keys. Finally locating them, she unlocked the door and held it open for Bianca to push the stroller in. "Can I at least make dinner or is that going to be too dangerous?" her tone obviously mocking.

Bianca squatted down next to the stroller to release Miranda from the safety harness. "Depends…are we finally out of Guilia's pre-made meals, or are you cooking something on your own?"

Maggie scowled. "Ha ha, very funny. There's still some of Guilia's cooking left."

"Oh, then by all means, please fix dinner." Bianca tried to put on the best 'I'm too cute and sweet too hate' face she could muster.

It worked, much to Maggie's dismay, like always.

July 14th – 7:49 PM

Maggie set the dishes in the sink, and then leaned forward, supporting herself with her hands. Her cheeks inflated with air and her eyes went large. "I think its official."

"What's that?" Bianca inquired.

"If I ever see another ravioli, I might just explode."

Bianca laughed. "Well, you can't complain about a woman who buys us groceries and fixes us meals for weeks on end."

"True, but, seriously, just how much pasta can one human being consume? Couldn't she change it up with the occasional, I don't know, burrito? Or maybe a pizza?"

"Spicy nachos from BJ's?" Bianca asked, taking up a space next to her friend at the sink.

Maggie's eyes closed, her voice almost orgasmic in tone. "Oh god yes."

"Whoa, hold on there honey, didn't mean to get you all over-excited," Bianca said with a nervous laugh.

"How funny is it," Maggie's eyes opened again, and she turned to look at Bianca, "that we live in what most people consider the leading city in the world for great cuisine, and I can't get a stupid plate of nachos form a greasy bar and grill out of my head?"

"Not silly at all!" Bianca admonished while rinsing her plate off in the sink. "It's not like I don't sometimes think about them too you know."

"Really? I knew you liked them, but I didn't think you were that into them."

"Well…I think more so since we came here actually. They represent home, comfort, another time I guess."

There was silence for a second and then Bianca felt a hand squeeze her shoulder. "You know…sometimes a plate of nachos…is just a plate of nachos right?"

Bianca burst out laughing. "Yes, but…" she had to pause and catch her breath, "you know what I mean. Sure they're not the best nachos ever…"

"SHUT UP! They are so!"

Bianca rolled her eyes. "But they are more than just 'nachos' when you're far from home, they are home…do you get what I'm saying?"

"Yes…and I still say they are just nachos, delicious with a chocolate milkshake chaser, but still just nachos."

"Oh fine, just shoot down my grandiose theories why don't you?"

Maggie stood on her tip toes and gave Bianca's cheek a kiss. "And that's why you love me," she said in a sing-songy voice. "I'm going to go jump in the shower…see you in the den in a bit?"

"As always…I'll be finding deep meaning in chocolate shakes by then."

Maggie laughed as she walked towards her bedroom door. Almost immediately after the door closed, Bianca could hear _Roadhouse Blues_ by The Doors playing, followed by Maggie's usual off-key sing-along.

Bianca finished washing off the plates, obviously deep in thought, until finally a smile crept across her face. She shut off the water, shook off her hands, and fished her mobile phone from her pants pocket. She hit a button, and put the phone to her ear. "Aurélia? It's Bianca, I'm so sorry to bother you at home again, but I need to get on an idea right away…no, it's of a personal nature…do you mind helping? Oh you're the best! Here's what I need…"

July 14th – 8:36 PM

"So you can do it? Oh that's great, I can't wait! Thank you so much for agreeing to this Robert." In the distance, a door closed, signaling that Maggie had left her bedroom. "Oh! Okay, I need to go, thank you again Robert and I'll see you on Saturday!" She quickly hit the off button on her phone and slipped it back in her pocket.

Maggie came skipping in to the room and plopped down on the couch next to Bianca, her hair still damp, a brush in her right hand. Miranda, as always it seemed, was in her playhouse, chatting up a storm with her dolls in the library. "Whatcha doin'?" she said in the approximation of a child's voice.

Bianca gave her a puzzled look. "Wondering how my daughter grew suddenly and started looking like Maggie."

"Magic!" She threw her arms up in the air, again impersonating a child.

"Ok…fess up…who gave you sugar?"

Maggie laughed, her voice returning to normal. "No one, I just feel good after a shower …and thinking about BJ's nachos...yum." she licked her lips.

"Well, glad your shower made you feel better. Hey…" she clicked mute on the television, "what do you have planned for Saturday night?"

"I don't know, we hadn't talked about it yet…did you have something in mind?"

Bianca looked at her sternly. "You know, you can make plans without me right? Go out with friends, go sight seeing…"

Maggie rolled her eyes skyward while she started brushing through the hair on the right side of her head. "Yes, mom. Now come on…what's up?"

"Well…you've asked me out on dates twice now, but I haven't asked you out yet."

"Yeah, what's up with making me do all the work?"

Bianca chose to ignore the latest jab. "Well, would you like to go out to dinner Saturday night?"

"You're on!"

"I figured I had a good chance at you saying yes, so I already called Guilia…"

"Oh no…well, I know what's for dinner for the next two weeks," she said, holding her stomach.

"Oh shush…8 o'clock? I'll pick you up!"

"Why Ms. Montgomery, I do believe you have a date! Do I at least get a hint to where we're going so I know what to wear?"

"Well…we'll be outside, so dressier casual would be good."

"I think I can pull that together now," she said with a big grin.

There was a loud explosion from across the apartment.

"What the hell was that?" Maggie asked.

"Oh! Come in, it's starting!" Bianca leapt off the couch, grabbing Maggie by the hand. As they dashed through the library, Bianca stopped to scoop up Miranda and ran though the rest of the apartment to the outside patio. As they burst through the French doors, fireworks were going off all around the Eiffel Tower.

"What's this all about?" Maggie asked, staring up.

"It's Bastille Day! Don't you pay any attention? Flags up all over the city? All over the news?"

"Remember you were impressed when I slipped "good night" in to a conversation in French? You think I understand the news?"

Bianca laughed and rolled her eyes. "Fine, just enjoy the show."

Maggie looked at her and smiled, and took Bianca's left hand into her right. The girls stood there, looking up, Miranda propped on Bianca's right hip, laughing and clapping her hands, the two other women of the house holding hands…enjoying a national holiday of France.

July 16th – 7:45 PM

"Mama mia!"

Bianca laughed and thanked Guilia, in French, for her reaction. Bianca had greeted them at the front door in a Diane von Furstenberg black, capsleeved wrap dress, with ivory highlights. The deep V-neck certainly didn't hurt things, neither did the black strappy 3" stiletto heels she was wearing. Her hair hung loose and long, ending in big bouncy curls.

Patrick couldn't see over the bags of groceries he was carrying, as was usual with their visits. "I would compliment you…if I could see you!"

"Patrick! When are you two going to learn babysitting doesn't automatically equal 'we need food'…I do run a company with a net worth of some small nations you know."

"Could you please inform my wife of this?"

"Somehow I don't think it would do much good," Bianca mumbled, looking over her shoulder at Guilia, who had already scooped Miranda out of her playhouse. "Here, let me take that," she said, grabbing one of the bags and following Patrick through the dining room to set it down on the kitchen counter.

Once this was accomplished, he finally got a good look at his boss. "Oh my…trying to impress tonight are we?"

Bianca giggled. "Of course. Do you know if everything arrived?"

"Yes, it's all been delivered, and everything has been set up as instructed."

"Excellent! Oh this is so going to blow her mind!" Bianca said giddily.

"I would be stunned if it didn't. I'm going head back down to the car, I'll meet you there." He gave Bianca a reassuring pat on the shoulder as he walked by her.

Bianca quickly grabbed her clutch purse from the butcher block and set off to say good-bye to Guilia and Miranda.

July 16th – 8:00 PM

Maggie checked her hair in the mirror one last time. She had pulled it back in a pony tail, but had left wisps at her temples, to hang in front of her ears.

She took a step back, checking her outfit to make sure it was in the more tasteful vein she was trying for. A knee length, aqua colored, pleated skirt looked good with her khaki waist-coat that had a cinch tie. She'd gone with open-toed heels and an oversized pink bag. "I never realized how tough it is to dress yourself when you actually do have to worry about what people will say," she muttered.

"Okay...I hope this outfit works, since I have NO clue where we're going yet." Just as she finished her sentence, there was a knock at her outer door. She smiled at Bianca 'picking her up' just as she done the reverse on their first date.

She opened the door and had her breath momentarily taken away by just how gorgeous Bianca looked. Classic. Simple. Fun. Sexy. All were adjectives that ran through her head. "You…look amazing." She looked down at herself quickly. "I…thought you said casual though…"

Bianca rolled her eyes. "I did, and what you have on…you look gorgeous." She had a huge grin on her face as she stepped forward and bent down slightly to give Maggie the lightest of kisses. She pulled back and kept her eyes closed for a moment, letting the sensation of Maggie's lips remain on hers for a moment. "You ready to go?" she finally asked.

"Yep…all ready," she said as she stepped into the hall, closing the door behind her. "When do I get to find out where we're going for dinner?"

"Soon enough…you just have to come with me." Bianca held out her left hand to Maggie in an obvious offer for her friend to take it.

She looked down at it, and paused only momentarily. They last time they had held hands in public, they had ended up as tabloid fodder. After a quick thought, she concluded she didn't care any more, and she was game. Taking her friend's hand, she followed her to the elevator, uncertain of their final destination for the evening.

After a quick ride down in the elevator, where they had stood close together, not speaking, just staring into each other's eyes, enjoying the solitude the short ride in the elevator afforded them, they reached the ground floor and went outside to the waiting car. Maggie knew it was a special night when she spotted Patrick was wearing his chauffeur's cap, something he hadn't done in ages. "Oh man," she mumbled "I really need to learn my 'casual' and her 'casual' are two totally different things."

July 16th – 8:30 PM

After a short drive to the general vicinity of the Cambias building, Patrick pulled the limo in to a narrow side street, and up to a small café with an outside dining area. He parked the car, and got out to open the door for his passengers.

"Oh this place is cute," Maggie commented, obviously fishing for more information on what was happening.

"Yes, it is," Bianca commented, not giving away any further information. "Thank you Patrick, can you take the limo somewhere else while we dine?"

"Of course. There's a parking garage two blocks away, that's where I'll be."

"Sounds good, I'll give you a call when we're done."

Patrick nodded, closed the door, and drove away, leaving the two young ladies standing outside the café. An older gentleman approached them and addressed them in French. Bianca confirmed who they were, and he led them to a small table in the back corner of the outside dining patio.

After they had been seated the little man walked away, leaving them no menus. "Hey," Maggie said to Bianca, "do we get menus or do we telepathically guess what we want?"

"Oh, don't worry, they bring the menus here a little bit after you sit down. It's no big deal."

"Okay," Maggie said as she sat back in her chair. She looked around the café and something leaped out at her. She looked down at their table…and then at the table next to them, and the one beyond that. "What the heck…our table is different than all the other tables…same with the…the silverware…the table cloth…"

"Really? That's so peculiar." Bianca was hiding her face with her hand now, obviously trying to hide a laugh.

Just then a man in a white shirt, with a thin black tie, and black trousers walked up to their table, his hands behind his back. "Good evening ladies, I'm Robert, I'll be your waiter this evening."

Maggie's eyebrows knitted together. "Pardon me, Robert you said? Why do you speak perfect English?"

"What else would I speak?"

"Um…maybe French?"

Robert smirked. "Not sure why I would speak French considering where I work."

Maggie was getting more confused by the minute, and Bianca was enjoying every minute of it.

"Anyway," continued Robert, "here are your menus, and I'll be back in a moment with your waters." He presented two menus from behind his back and handed one to each lady, before turning and walking away.

Maggie watched him walk away. "That was just beyond weird…I don't know what's going on here, but…" Maggie turned to finally look at her menu. Her jaw dropped, and she looked up at Bianca. "How?"

Bianca threw her hands up above her head, in a child like fashion, "Magic!"

Maggie laughed and looked at the front of her menu again, and the gold circled logo that said "BJ's" emblazoned across its cover.

July 16th – 9:15 PM

"Ok, let me see if I have this right…" Maggie popped another nacho in her mouth, her eyes nearly rolling back in her head, "wouldn't it have been cheaper for us to fly to Pine Valley for the night?"

"Yes…by quite a bit."

"So…to save us the trouble of being yelled at by everyone for sneaking in and out of town, you brought over a cook, a waiter, table, chairs, silverware, glassware, table cloth, menus, ingredients…wait…did they bring ingredients for EVERYTHING on the menu?"

Bianca laughed. "No, I felt fairly safe in guessing what it was you would be ordering from the menu."

"Well…yeah," popping another nacho in to her mouth.

"But really…two orders?"

"What? I was hungry…and how often am I going to get a chance to have these for awhile?"

Bianca took a sip of her chocolate shake and smiled in a self-satisfied fashion. "More than you would think, at least for a little while."

Maggie eyed her. "What else did you do?"

"I had them bring enough ingredients so we could make some ourselves at home a couple times. While you and I go to our next destination, Patrick will be seeing to it all being delivered to the apartment for us."

"You know, you may look good in that dress, but there is nothing sexier than a woman who flies me in my own private supply of nachos," she said, devouring yet another cheese covered tortilla chip. "So, did you also rent out the restaurant, or are all these empty tables normal?"

Bianca blushed and shifted in her chair, unused to Maggie so freely mentioning an attraction. "Well…the normal chef was appalled at what we were proposing, but the owner was more accommodating seeing as he writes a check to Cambias each month for rent, so, yes, he got a free month's rent for allowing us these few hours."

"Bianca…I…this is really too much…you know that right?"

"Maggie, look," she adjusted herself in her seat, "over all, I live fairly frugally. I don't go out to clubs, I don't do drugs, I don't even own a private car, let alone a nice one…I take care of those people I love, and that happens to include you. I could do this for you, I did it, believe me, the amount of money Cambias makes, this is a pittance."

"To Cambias it is, to me it's not even feasible. How could I ever do something like this for you?"

"You don't have to, Maggie," she reached across the table, grabbing Maggie's left hand in her right, "We aren't in a competition of whom can out do the other. I am just as happy sitting at home with you on the couch in the den as I would be if we went out to the fanciest restaurant in the city."

"You say that, but I can't help think about it sometimes…"

"Oh shush…" she sat back in her chair and smiled, obviously not wishing to continue this line of thought, "finish your meal so we can get on with our evening."

July 16th – 10:06 PM

"So Patrick, how much of this did you know about?"

Patrick looked up in the rear view mirror and smiled at Maggie, then returned his attention to the narrow streets he was navigating.

"Figures," she mumbled. Bianca was on her mobile, checking on Miranda, Maggie turned to stare out the window at the passing lights. Even though she had been in the city for going on five months, it was still hard to digest sometimes she, of all people, lived in Paris. It just didn't seem real still on some levels. "_Green Bay…Pine Valley…Paris…one of these things is not like the others?_" she thought.

"Penny for your thoughts," came Bianca's voice.

Maggie turned with a smile. "Munchkin okay?"

"Sound asleep in…"

"Her playhouse," Maggie finished.

"Yes. I think she believes she has actually moved in there."

The limo slowed to a stop, an assortment of different colors and shades of light pouring through the windows, shadows dancing across their faces. Maggie looked around and recognized it as the Champs Elyssées. "What are we doing here?" she inquired.

"I just thought it would make for a nice walk after our meal…and there are some lovely outdoor cafes along here that have amazing cocktails," she said with an impish grin.

Patrick opened the door for them, and the girls stepped out. Maggie moved away from the car to give Bianca some room to get out, and while she did so, she stretched her arms above her, hoping the double serving of nachos in her stomach might shift. She looked back and saw Patrick and Bianca conversing intently about something. Bianca patted him in the arm, he closed the door, and got back in the front of the car and drove away. "Where's he off to?" Maggie asked.

"He has to make sure everything gets to the apartment okay, he'll be back for us in awhile. Come on, let's go for a walk, some of the shops are still open, and we can at least window shop before we settle on some place for a drink." As she had earlier, Bianca offered her hand to Maggie with a smile.

Maggie pondered it again for a moment, and finally opted to take it as they began their late night stroll down one of the most famous streets in the world.

They walked slowly, taking their time, looking in many boutique windows, not looking for anything in particular, just enjoying the night and what it had to offer. Maggie was somewhat tense of holding Bianca's hand as they walked, but it didn't take long for her to notice that people either didn't care, or if they did, they would just give an appreciative nod and a smile. It was nice.

There was one shop Maggie 'had' to run into, Bianca opted to wait outside for her. Considering the night's temperature, she was a bit surprised to see her walk out with a scarf around her neck. After only a light chuckle, they continued their leisurely summer night.

July 16th – 11:45 PM

The girls were well into their second cocktails when they saw Patrick pull the limo up on a nearby side street to wait for them. They waved to him, and he back to them.

"Does he do all this for us out of friendship or do you just pay him that much?" Maggie asked, leaning back in her chair.

"What? Drive us around any day of the week at any hour of the day?"

"Yeah, he never seems to argue, no matter what time it is."

"It's a mixture, I think." Bianca said looking over again at the limo. "I know Alexander used to keep him out to all sorts of insane hours. He's told me a couple times he actually gets more sleep working for me than he ever did under him, and I'm sure it doesn't hurt that I pay him a crazy amount of money," she said with a giggle, the alcohol having an obvious effect on her.

"You, my friend, are tipsy," Maggie said with a nod of her head.

"Excuse me? This from the girl who is wearing the scarf she JUST bought, and it's nearly 80 degrees?"

Maggie lifted one end of the purplish scarf that hung around her neck, and made a dismissive wave with it. "It was on sale and, what can I say, I love scarves!"

Bianca rolled her eyes and finished off her second martini. "Well…that's me I think. We should be getting home if you're ready."

Maggie leaned forward, and lifted her cosmopolitan, finishing it off one gulp. "Sure thing."

July 17th – 12:00 AM

"Thanks again, Guilia, we really do appreciate it," Bianca told her in French before giving her la bise. After a few more farewells, Bianca closed the door, and headed directly to the kitchen, where she had left Maggie.

She was still where Bianca had last seen her; to the right of the door, sitting at their newly purchased table, her upper torso laying on it, hugging it. "Still enjoying it, huh?"

"It smells of nachos."

Bianca rolled her eyes and took the other seat. "I truly doubt that."

Maggie lifted herself slightly and propped her head on one hand. "So, would you care to explain to me why exactly we ended up owning the table and chairs from BJ's?"

Bianca laughed. "Well, to be honest, it wasn't the original plan, but after they fought with them to get them on the Cambias jet the first time, they kind of begged me to buy them, so I did."

"Makes sense to me! Well…we needed a table in here anyway, that butcher block was starting to kill my back, always sitting on those stools."

"Me too, so I think we came out pretty good in this deal."

The girls fell in to an awkward silence, but one where you stare at the other party instead of looking around, trying to find something to say. There was a longing to their looks, an unexpressed desire and want, but neither being able to put their finger on it.

"So…" Maggie finally spoke, "Miranda's all tucked in?"

"Yeah, Guilia finally pried her out of the playhouse and got her upstairs. She's sound asleep."

Maggie fully sat up now, put her palms flat on the table, and stared down at the grain in the wood of the table. "You know, I don't know about you, but…" she crinkled her nose, squinted her eyes and looked more directly at Bianca "I don't think I'm ready to go to bed yet."

"Me either, but, what do you want to do?"

"How about, we get a bottle of wine, head to the den, and...listen to some music? You know, a total girl talk night like we used to do."

Bianca's grin stretched from one ear to the other. "That, sounds like a lovely idea. You go put on some music, and I'll meet you there in a couple minutes with the wine."

Just as Bianca had said, it was only a couple of minutes before she joined Maggie in the den. The lights were off, just the glow of the city playing against the wall, and the soft luminescence of the stereo, which was turned down so low as to be barely audible.

Maggie was on the couch, turned sideways, her legs drawn up with her, her shoes discarded haphazardly on the floor where she had kicked them off. Her right arm was stretched along the top of the couch, her hand lightly bouncing up and down on its finger tips as she stared at it, and sang along softly to the song. She didn't even notice Bianca until she sat down in a mirrored position to her at the other end of the couch, but not so far as to be out of reach. Bianca offered her a glass of the red wine, which she gladly accepted and took an immediate gulp from.

Bianca stared into her wine, and as she lifted it to take a sip she asked, "Maggie…is there something bothering you?"

Maggie sat silent, staring into her wine for a moment. As Bianca had done, she lifted her glass as she spoke, and as it hit her lips, she mumbled "Third date."

"Third da…oh you have to be kidding me!" Bianca lifted her left hand to her forehead and rubbed it in frustration. "Maggie, you have to be kidding me…you actually subscribe to the thought that the third date is 'the big one'?"

"Well…yeah, I thought most people did."

Bianca lowered her left hand, covering Maggie's right with it. "We aren't most people Maggie. We do this at our own pace, with no need to rush things."

"I know, but…at the same time…it has to happen at some point you know?"

"Not until a time where you feel it's right, it doesn't."

"What…what if I said I feel now is right?"

"I would say I think someone has had too much too drink and may also be a little high on spicy nachos," she said with a soft giggle to her voice, but she could tell from the look on Maggie's face, that wasn't well received.

Maggie turned, took another gulp of wine, and leaned over to the coffee table, setting her wine glass down. As she turned back to face Bianca, she also moved closer to her on the couch. "I'm not kidding Bianca…everything you have done for me, everything you do for me…" she cupped Bianca's right cheek with her hand, causing Bianca to pull back slightly, "I want to do this for you." She leaned forward and passionately kissed Bianca.

As much as Bianca had been slightly unsettled just a moment ago, she had a hard time resisting Maggie's lips…her tongue…the very essence of her, when she was obviously this intense. Just as much as the alcohol had been intoxicating, so was Maggie being this passionate.

Maggie continued to press forward, forcing Bianca to lean backwards, her kissing becoming more and more intense. She reached down and undid the cinch on her top, allowing the sides to fall open. It was when she reached for the side tie on Bianca's wrap dress that it all started to go horribly wrong.

Bianca felt the tug at her dress…felt the pressure of a body on her…pushing her…pinning her to a couch…her eyes snapped open, the room was dark, just like it had been before…before…she couldn't catch her breath…"_not again…god, not again_"…she moved her hands onto the bare stomach of the body pressing her down…ever further down, she mustered what strength she could to shove…her eyes stinging with salty tears, her mouth free of her oppressors, she gritted her teeth, her voice a primal, almost a guttural scream "NO!"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

July 17th – 12:18 AM

Maggie lay flat on her back, having landed on the floor between the couch and the coffee table when Bianca had shoved her off of her own body. She wasn't sure what had happened, what had caused such a violent reaction in her normally docile, loving, friend. She slid her arms under her to prop her upper torso up, and rest on her elbows. She looked to her left at Bianca, and it all came crashing down in a hurry just what had transpired.

Bianca's face was pale, verging on ghostly, her eyes sunken, the usual sparkle was gone…they were hollow, and worst of all, scared. She had sat up and pulled her knees to her chest, her arms encircling them, she was no more than a ball on the couch.

Maggie scrambled to get to her knees and turn so she could face Bianca. Her first impulse was to reach out to her obviously traumatized friend, to touch her and tell her everything would be alright, but as soon as she did, Bianca visibly recoiled. Maggie's palms went flat, in a sign of 'ok, I understand, I'm backing off'. She sat back on her heels, and just stared, unsure of what she could do to make right what had just gone so horribly wrong.

She had always been the one to comfort Bianca, but Maggie had no clue what to do when it was she who had caused the problem. It was she who had made Bianca retreat inside herself, to relive that hell of two years ago. What could she possibly do now to comfort her when she was afraid to even touch her?

Maggie stood up slowly, making sure not to make any sudden movements towards Bianca, but instead going backwards, away from her. Once she was at her full height, she walked slowly, in a wide circle, around the coffee table, turning off the stereo as she passed, and made her way to the light switch on the wall next to the doorway. As she did, she felt the coolness of the air on her stomach, she looked down and realized her top was still open. She closed it around herself and tied the cinch back in place.

The light switch was cold under her fingers, odd for something she hoped would being a warmth back to the room. She debated saying something to Bianca about turning the lights back on, but she figured she knew what she was about to do, and she felt it would be better than Bianca hearing her voice at this point. She slowly, methodically, moved the light switch up, waiting for the snap-pop sound that would accompany the lights coming to life.

Bianca's reaction was unexpected, but understandable. She burst to life when the lights came on, leaping from the couch, she ran past Maggie and through the library and out to the entry hall. Maggie could hear her feet hit the stairs at break-neck speeds, and the inevitable slamming of her bedroom door.

Maggie leaned her head against the wood of the door frame and closed her eyes, resting for a moment, before she started lightly knocking on the wood with her forehead in an obvious sign of the stupidity she felt.

July 17th – 12:25 AM

Bianca stood in her bedroom, her back pressed against the coolness of the door she had just slammed. Her eyes darted around the room, panicked. She had to get away from what had just happened downstairs, but now she was feeling trapped in her own bedroom. Like she had traded one cage for another… but at least this one was missing her oppressor.

She closed her eyes and tried to even out her breathing. "_Not Michael… Maggie… Not Michael… Michael's dead… Maggie… that was Maggie…_" The same words twisting, turning, re-ordering themselves in her head, over and over again.

It wasn't working, no matter how many different ways she approached the scenario in her head, it wasn't making it any easier, it wasn't bringing her back to the real world any faster. She needed to calm herself, find her center again.

"_Miranda._" Her eyes popped back open, Miranda was her center and she always calmed her. "_I just need to see my baby girl… she can make this all better just by… well, existing."_

She put her palms flat against the door and used them to push herself off. She was still shaky, uncertain in her own skin. She had to grab on to the door jamb as she fumbled for the light switch in the master bathroom, which would lead her to her daughter's room. The burst of illumination momentarily blinded her, just as it had… downstairs.

Her knees threatened to buckle under her as she felt woozy again. She put her left hand on her stomach, feeling the approaching reaction. She darted to the toilet, and promptly threw up her evening's dinner.

July 17th – 12:25 AM

Maggie stood frozen in the spot next to the light switch. She couldn't move…couldn't breath…couldn't think. The last ten minutes were a nauseating blur of mistakes and bad judgment.

What seemed like a spectacular idea one minute, was possibly the worst decision of her life the very next. "_What was I thinking pressing her back like that? Of all people, I should have known better… and on a couch… in the dark to boot?"_ Just one bad decision after another, and in such a short span of time.

She finally pressed herself away from the door jamb, and walked slowly through the library, her mind fuzzy and seemingly in a daze. She wasn't even a 100 certain of where she was going, she just knew she had to get out of that room and head somewhere else… anywhere else.

"_Stairs…_" Now she knew she was on automatic. "_I shouldn't be here… I shouldn't be this close to her… she needs space… oh god, why is my foot on the stairs? No, don't go up, you're just going to make it worse if you go up!_"

She couldn't be sure, but it certainly sounded as if someone had just vomited upstairs.

July 17th – 12:40 AM

Bianca was running the damp cloth around her face, trying to calm herself down after her little stint at the toilet moments before. She dropped it in the sink and reached to turn the water off, after which she placed her palms flat on either side of the sink and stared at herself in the mirror unflinchingly for several moments while she studied herself. "_Good job Montgomery… I thought I was passed all this, but all it took was a single moment of over enthusiasm to bring it all flooding back._"

She sighed and turned towards the door that led to her daughter's bedroom. Not wanting to turn on any lights and wake the little girl, she left the door to the bathroom open a crack, allowing the light to spill over from one room into the next. This gave her just enough light to see what she needed to… her beautiful daughter's face.

Bianca bent over, folding her arms on the side of the crib to rest her chin on and just watched her daughter sleeping… her eye lids twitching… her chest rising and falling with each breath. "_You aren't here Michael…_" Bianca thought "_you aren't in my daughter… she's sweet and pure… and you weren't downstairs earlier… you're dead and buried, and you can never do anything to harm me or my family again… that was Maggie with me on the couch… not you… she didn't mean it… it was odd, and too much too soon, but she wasn't you Michael… I've dealt with you, both alive and dead, you're gone, and that wasn't you on the couch… it wasn't you… you're always going to be here in some way, but it wasn't you…_"

Standing upright again, she reached into the crib with her right hand, and softly brushed the back of her hand across Miranda's right cheek. The little girl only wiggled slightly, but did not wake. Bianca sighed and walked towards the bathroom again, untying her wrap dress as she walked. She entered the bathroom and reached to close the door, but momentarily paused and leaned back to take one last glance at her daughter's crib, like if she hadn't, it would vanish into thin air.

Satisfied her daughter wasn't going anywhere; Bianca closed the door and walked over to the shower. She reached in, turned on the water as hot as she estimated she would be able to handle, and started taking off her dress while kicking off her shoes.

July 17th – 12:50 AM

"_Okay Stone… how long do you plan to stand here… with your foot on the stairs? Either you're going up or you're not, make up your damned mind!"_

Maggie hadn't moved in quite some time. She stood there, one foot on the stairs, staring up at the door to Bianca's room, arguing with herself if she should go up to her.

"_This is all wrong… so wrong… this isn't how it was supposed to be… it should have been beautiful… right… it should have been everything she dreamed of… I let her down… I always disappoint everyone… I disappointed her, I disappointed Jonathon… I…_"

Her jaw slackened, her foot pulled from the stair, and she stood there, lost, as she heard the shower upstairs starting to run.

July 17th – 12:52 AM

Bianca stood in the shower, her face upturned towards the steaming water, allowing it to spray in her face, the steam filling her senses. She opened her mouth slightly, allowing the water to hit her tongue, but bouncing off and dribbling down her chin.

She always liked showers. Their white noise provided her a safe haven from the rest of the world, to get away from everyone, and everything. The white noise of the falling water shielding her from all but the most persistent of people or things. This, besides time with her daughter, was her safe place, her happy place.

When she had been younger, just before coming out to her mother, she had spent hours a day in the shower as she tussled with her own fears over how her mother would react, if she would be accepted by the great Erica Kane, or rejected, as she suspected. Then again, when she learned of her pregnancy, and dealing with the implications of that, she had again found herself spending more than a healthy amount of time in the sanctuary that was her shower.

Tonight though was different. While she was physically alone, many people were in there with her, inside her head, lingering at the edges of mental perception, each stepping out of the shadows as she called to them to play their part in her cerebral dance. "_Michael… it always comes back to you doesn't it? I killed you and still you have a power over me. So help me god if you made it so I can never go near Maggie… I will dig you back up and shoot you again, and I won't regret it this time._"

As Michael drifted away, it was Maggie's turn to come to the forefront of her thoughts. Bianca turned around so her back was to the shower head, she leaned forward slightly to broaden her back where the water hit. "_You just aren't ready Maggie… you need to calm down, take your time, we don't have to do this now, or even all at once the first time, we have to go slow, for both our sakes. You don't have to be so aggressive, we'll get there I promise… take your time… I forgive you though, and as soon as I can, I have to tell you that…"_

When Maggie began to drift away from her thoughts, she was surprised to find her mind wasn't ready to go yet. Something, or someone, was still there, making her continue to think about it all. "_Why was she aggressive?_" Bianca picked up the body wash and squirted some on to her back scrubber. "_She's never been anything but tame before now, why would she suddenly be so aggressive? Did someone tell her to be aggressive? Did someone…_" she stopped in mid-scrub on her back.

"_Jonathon._" Even in her head, venom dripped from her pronunciation of his name. "_What did that bastard do to you Maggie? Or what did he MAKE you do is more like it._" She returned to scrubbing her back, but it was more intense, almost violent now, leaving red streaks where she used too much force.

July 17th – 1:10 AM

Maggie sat on the stairs, staring blankly towards the large wall of windows. Her knees together, but her feet shot out to the side at angles, her hands laying palm up in her lap, and she leaned forward at the waist, her mouth hung open. She almost appeared childlike in nature.

"_He can't stop hurting people… even when dead, his sickness is still here, hurting the people I love… and I'm the one carrying it around inside of me… did he change me that much? Can I ever get back to who I was before him?" _Her internal monologue was beginning to have obvious exterior effects as tears started to slowly creep down her cheeks, and then falling from her chin on to her aqua colored skirt. She slowly began rocking back and forth as she continued to ponder the lingering damage Jonathan Lavery had done to her psyche.

Her crying became more pronounced, moving on to a full on sobbing, as she leaned forward, touching her forehead to her knees. "_These men in our lives… Michael… Jonathan… tainting everything they touch, leaving permanent scars on our souls, they were evil and wrong and they can't continue hurting us from their graves, they just can't! I want to be with Bianca, I NEED to be with Bianca, and I can't let Jonathan do this to me anymore, I have to get back to a better place, and the only person who can do that is the one I just scared!_"

She moved her hands out from under her as she went to sit up right again, lifting them to her face to wipe away the tears. Her skirt now felt heavy against her knees as it had absorbed her tears as she cried in that bent over state. "_I just have to hope and pray I didn't mess things up so badly with Bianca that she doesn't go running from me… but who could blame her. Our first time trying anything serious and I come at her like a crazed person. I wouldn't blame her if she wanted me to go away for good… but I at least have to try, try to tell her I know what's wrong, what caused this, and hopefully, with her help, I can fix it, get back to the way I was before he made me be the aggressive one…_"

Even though she was wobbly, she stood up, and tried to make her way to the bathroom that was hidden just behind her, under the main stair case. She opened the door and flicked on the lights in the miniature bathroom. She had a look at herself in the mirror, her make-up ruined, hair a mess, she cocked an eyebrow and nodded in appreciation to her look. "_Oh yeah… who's a sexy beast!_"

July 17th – 1:20 AM

Bianca finished blow drying her hair in her bedroom, not wishing to wake her daughter. She carried the dryer back to the bathroom and pondered what to do with herself next. "_Well… now I'm bored_" she thought while chuckling to herself, "_I'm not tired enough to sleep, my laptop is downstairs in the dining room… I guess I could go make myself some tea, but I don't want to disturb Maggie, we'll just talk in the morning… alright, I'll risk it._"

She grabbed a black silk robe from her bed, and put it on over her matching nightgown before she walked over to the door of her bedroom that led to the second floor landing. At first she opened the door just a crack, taking a peak down in to the living room… no sign of Maggie. She grabbed the baby monitor she had already turned on, slipped it in her pocket and stepped out on to the landing.

Wanting to make sure she was not intruding on Maggie anywhere, she opted to walk to the far end of the landing and take the spiral staircase down in to the living room. Once down, and seeing no lights were on, she assumed Maggie was in her room.

She let out a relieved sigh, and started walking towards the entrance hall when the bathroom door under the main stairs opened, and Maggie came walking out, looking like she had cried every tear her body could release.

They stood frozen for a moment, unsure how to react to each other, trying to sense the other one's thoughts out, their eyes darting left-to-right, and up-and-down. It was Bianca who finally cracked a smile and walked towards Maggie, who was feeling an urge to dart back in the bathroom and never come out again.

Bianca got over to Maggie, and stood directly in front of her. "You know," she said, while turning Maggie towards the entrance hall "I was thinking of making some tea as I am just not that tired yet, and I was kind of hoping you might join me."

Maggie's jaw hung slightly open, a shell shocked look on her face. "Uh huh" was about all she could muster.

"But you're still in your clothes from dinner, so why don't you go and take a quick shower, and by the time you get out, I'll have the tea waiting for you." She now placed her left arm through the crook of Maggie's right, to lead her along the way. Maggie, being in no condition to argue, followed along.

July 17th 1:40 AM

Maggie had taken one of the quickest showers of her life, and now sat at the butcher block in the kitchen, her hair up in a towel, wearing a robe, her hands wrapped around a coffee mug filled with Darjeeling tea that she was staring intently in to. She had still yet to speak a word since Bianca had found her coming out of the bathroom.

Bianca sat across from her, staring, trying to size up the best way to talk to her. "Maggie?" she asked softly.

Maggie's eyes quickly darted up, then back down to the tea.

"Maggie, really, this is silly, you can talk to me, I won't break."

"I… I hurt you."

Bianca couldn't help it, but a soft chuckle escaped her lips. "You didn't 'hurt' me Maggie, not physically or mentally, you just scared me was all. It was just too fast…"

"And on a couch… in the dark." Maggie whispered in interruption.

"Yes… and both of those things." Bianca lifted her mug and took a sip of her tea and then lowered it again, pausing to consider her next words carefully. "Maggie, I have to ask you something, and if it upsets you, I'm sorry, but I have to know." She looked at Maggie now, waiting for a reaction that never came. She finally asked anyway. "Did this have something to do with the way Jonathon treated you?"

Maggie gulped. "Ye… yes." She took a sip of her own tea, but Bianca waited patiently for her to continue. After she set the tea back down, she looked Bianca squarely in the eye, setting her jaw in an angry expression. "He used to make me beg for it… for sex," she spat out. "He wanted me to always be the aggressive one because then that way it proved to him I loved him and wanted him."

Bianca had suspected this, but had never really felt the need to discuss it with Maggie, always figuring she would come to her with it if it was bothering her. Sadly, it was now evident it did bother her, but she had never chosen to speak about it.

"I thought everything he had done to poison me died with him, but I guess it didn't," the tears from earlier began to return to her eyes as she got angrier, "and now it's led to me hurting you!"

"But you didn't hurt me…"

"YES I DID!" she screamed. "I made you relive that night, that god forsaken, awful night when you were raped! And it's all because of him, and what he did to me and now..." her voice calmed somewhat, but still trembled with emotion, "and now you'll always think about this as well… how I got too aggressive and how I, your best friend… your girlfriend… how it was me that scared you this time."

"No, I won't Maggie," she stood up and walked around the butcher block and turned Maggie to look at her. "What I will think about is that I'm with the woman I love… the woman I've wanted to be with for a very long time now, but obviously we aren't quite ready yet. We will be, soon, but not quite yet."

"But… but what if I do this to you again?" she asked, her eyes squinting, preparing to cry again. "I can't do that to you again Bianca, I wouldn't be able to live with myself."

Bianca pulled Maggie forward and hugged her, resting her chin on top of the towel on her head. "It won't happen again… we know to be careful now, to take it slower, and be more cautious. I got scared Maggie, nothing more, and it won't happen again…" she paused, and when she spoke again, her voice was more monotone "Michael is dead… Jonathon is dead… they were the evil ones, not you, not me, but them, and their evil died with them."

Maggie pulled back from Bianca's hug and looked up at her. "But… Bianca, obviously some of what Jonathon did to me is still here… inside of me, it's still here and it scares me… I don't want to scare you again, I don…"

Bianca cut her off mid-word. "Then you won't scare me again, you won't. You know what to be careful of now. And his evil? It doesn't live inside you Maggie, it doesn't." She cupped Maggie's left cheek with her right hand. "Here… let me stare in to your eyes." Bianca leaned closer, their noses almost touching. "Nope… no little Jonathon's with horns running around in there," she said with a grin.

Maggie snorted out a laugh. "Nice Bianca… real nice."

"But it made you laugh."

"Yes, it did, but it doesn't change the fact that I'm going to worry about this every time we start to get… intimate."

"Well, first off, we obviously weren't ready yet, so it will be awhile before that's a concern again, and secondly, good, do worry about it."

Maggie was unsure of how to react to that. "So you think I could do this again then?"

"Not so long as you're aware of it and watch out for it." Bianca could see the look of confusion on her friend's face. "Look, everything that happened tonight took us by surprise. We got wrapped up in the moment, and while that can be romantic at times, until we are more established, we just need to be more careful. We are both carrying a lot of baggage with us."

"I understand… I think."

"You will once you think about it more, I promise, but for now, it's getting late, and we've had a very full night, we should probably both try going to bed."

"You're right, as always… I hate that about you," she said with a lopsided grin.

"_There she is… there's my Maggie._" Bianca thought before continuing. "Well get used to it, because it's just going to keep happening!"

"Yeah, yeah," Maggie stood up and held her arms open for a hug, which Bianca gladly gave her. They stood there for several minutes like this, neither making any move to break their hold on each other. "I don't want to stop holding you," Maggie finally said, "I just want to keep holding you, and make up for earlier."

"Just talking made up for earlier… and I want you to keep holding me too."

Maggie pulled back slightly and looked up in to Bianca's eyes. "Would it be wrong… if… if I asked you to sleep with me tonight?" she asked, but quickly added nervously "And I do mean sleep you know, not 'sleep with me' as in sex, but you know actual sleeping."

"Oh! You mean the type of sleep where you snore and hog the covers?"

"I do not snore!"

"But yet you don't deny the hogging of covers I notice."

"Well… I don't snore!" she said with a grin.

Bianca smacked her shoulder. "See? I knew I could finally get you to admit one day to being a cover hog!"

"I'm cold blooded! I can't help it!" Both girls laughed, but then there was an awkward moment of silence before Maggie spoke again. "So will you?"

"Will I what?" Bianca asked in an obvious attempt to drag out Maggie's misery.

"Bianca, would you sleep over tonight?"

"Really? You think that's wise? What will the neighbors think?" she asked in an obviously mocking tone while placing her hand against her forehead in mock despair.

Maggie rolled her eyes, grabbed Bianca's left hand, and started dragging her towards her bedroom.

"Oh the scandal! What will the papers say about me sleeping in another woman's bed? Why, they may start saying I'm a… dare I say it… a lesbian!"

"What is it I see in you?" Maggie inquired as she slammed the door to her bedroom after them.

July 17th – 2:30 AM

Everyone in the apartment was asleep. Miranda slept restfully in her bed. Bianca slept spooning Maggie, her left arm draped over Maggie's waist, and hers draped over Bianca's, their fingers interlaced.

Upstairs, in Bianca's purse, her phone vibrated, signaling an incoming text message from Patrick, which read "Morning papers, new pictures Guy took dinner, story about wasteful spending. Will talk in morning."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

It had been over a week since those unfortunate events on the couch that had led to a night of soul searching for the former Pine Valley residents. They were working their way back into the groove of everyday life, with small things like the return of their good night kisses, but with a new twist… they were given in bed.

While nothing had progressed past the kissing stage, they were switching off nights between Bianca's room upstairs and Maggie's room just off the kitchen. Miranda was a big enough girl, now she had a bed instead of a crib, and could sleep through the night on her own, though Bianca still always had a baby monitor not very far out of reach.

The comfort was returning, and the trust and ease were making their way back too. It was Maggie that was the hold up. She would move in for a kiss, then pause, uncertain if her approach was too sudden, too aggressive and predatory. Bianca would give her a soft smile and finish closing the physical, as well as mental, gap the shorter girl had left.

Guy Kachel's latest offensive in his war on all things Cambias had begun with the salvo of pictures from their night enjoying BJ's on the patio of a French bistro. The story had been a scathing essay on the frivolous spending of the super-rich, with an estimation of how much each plate of nachos had cost. Maggie had read this while sitting at the newly purchased BJ's table in their kitchen and dining on a plate of nachos from the left over ingredients. The irony was not lost on them.

The problem seemed to be more that Guy had somehow figured out a way to predict their movements. Patrick was trained in eluding perusing cars, and from the way Bianca and Maggie sometimes got thrown around in the back of the limo as Patrick would make sudden lane changes and turns, they knew Guy wasn't following them. Somehow he still always found them and their pictures were becoming a regular feature on the gossip pages of the tabloids.

With Maggie's summer break quickly drawing to a close though, Bianca was determined for them to enjoy their last week together before the rigors of school tore her away again.

July 27th – 8:15 PM

**_Back at the Roadhouse they got some bungalows  
Said at the back of the roadhouse  
They got some bungalows  
And that's for the people  
Who like to go down slow_**

Bianca sprayed off the dishes from dinner, finding herself humming along to the song against her own will. Jim Morrison's sultry voice seemed to be a permanent fixture as of late coming from Maggie's room.

_**Let it roll, baby, roll  
Let it roll, baby, roll  
Let it roll, baby, roll  
Let it roll, all night long**_

On some level it drove her mad as she heard it so often, but on another level she found it oddly endearing… and somewhat dirty.

**_Back at the roadhouse they got some bungalows  
Said at the back of the roadhouse  
They got some bungalows  
And that's for the people  
Who like to go down slow  
They like to get it down slow  
Like to get it way down_**

Ok, not somewhat dirty, dirty for sure.

The music clicked off, and the door to Maggie's room opened. Bianca turned to look at her, and Maggie paused, staring at her. After a moment she grinned that lopsided grin that always spelled trouble. She lifted her right arm and pointed with her index finger, singing the next line of the song she had just turned off. "_Ashen lady, Ashen lady._"

Bianca rolled her eyes, shook her head, and smiled all at once.

Maggie started walking towards her, still pointing. "_Give up your vows, give up your vows._"

"I wasn't aware I had taken any vows, seeing as I'm not a nun."

She reached Bianca, placed her hands on either side of her waist, and started swaying them back and forth as she continued. "_Save our city, save our city._"

"I wasn't aware the city was in trouble, perhaps you should alert the police?"

"_Right now._"

"Yep, you better get on that then."

Maggie playfully slapped her back. "You're no fun."

"I'm oodles of fun… who beat you at Monopoly last night?"

"You did… but you cheat!"

Bianca's jaw dropped as she placed the last plate, placing it in the dishwasher. "How does one cheat at Monopoly?"

"You do all that stuff for a living, it gives you an unfair advantage! You understand it all!"

"Oh, so we should find a game that gives you a leg up then?"

"Yes! I was thinking of Operation!"

Bianca closed the door to the dishwasher and turned it on as she shook her head. "You have to be kidding me."

"Well, at least it would be something to do! I'm so bored! We haven't gone anywhere in days, and in my almost professional medical opinion, I think I have Cabin Fever!"

"I know, I know, I've been swamped at work, but we're all done with the quarterlies now, how about I take tomorrow off and we go somewhere? Your choice!" 

"Really? Well, there's some place I've been wanting to go for awhile now, but I was afraid you might find it a bit… odd?"

"Why would I find it odd?" Bianca asked, her eyebrows knitting together.

"It's a graveyard."

"Ok, yeah, that is a bit odd," she said with a nervous giggle.

"No, no, it's the Père Lachaise Cemetery, where Jim Morrison is buried along with a bunch of other famous people like Oscar Wilde."

"Oh, okay! I thought for a second maybe you had gone all goth on me!"

"Yes Bianca…" she stood on her tip toes and made a move towards her neck "I vant to suck your blood," she added in a horrible Dracula-like accent. And with that, she did plant a serious enough kiss on her neck to leave a small 'love bite'.

July 28th – 12:30 PM

"I always read this was one of the busiest tourist spots in Paris, how are we the only ones here?"

"'Security sweep' I believe was the term they went with."

"Meaning Cambias paid off the cemetery," Maggie said with a knowing grin.

"Perhaps," Bianca replied with a sly grin.

"You really have to stop doing that you know."

"Maggie… the majority of the Cambias fortune was made in underhanded, dirty schemes, and while I'm trying to do good with it now, I still don't mind spending it in frivolous ways that make the people I love smile."

"Well… thank you."

"Not a problem… now, go pay your respects."

Bianca stood back a little ways from Maggie, watching as she walked over and knelt down next to the man she had learned, just that morning, was known as 'The Lizard King'. She figured there was more to this then she knew when Maggie had walked out of her room wearing her Tiger's jersey.

"_Aren't you ready to go?" she had asked._

"_Yeah, whenever you are," the shorter girl had replied._

"_But… that's your sleep shirt," Bianca had stated._

"_Correction… it's my Frankie shirt," Maggie had replied._

On the way to the cemetery, which was not outside of the city as one would suspect a 109 acre cemetery to be, Maggie had Patrick stop at a book store and she had hopped back in the limo with a newly purchased copy of Shakespeare's collected sonnets.

Now she stood there, watching as her friend knelt beside the grave of a singer who had died at an age not that far removed from their own. Maggie had given her quite the education on the ride over.

"_He still was able to speak to people of all ages, including those who weren't even born yet when he died. He spoke to the disenfranchised, the lost, and he spoke for those who had no voice," she had said._

It was starting to dawn on her what the connection might be as she saw Maggie place the book on top of the pile of flowers that she understood to be a permanent fixture on his grave. She watched as Maggie lifted the fingers of her right hand to her lips, kissed them, and then pressed those same fingers on to the book.

A security guard approached Bianca. "Ma'am, I'm afraid we can't keep people away much longer, they are growing restless and starting to question."

Bianca looked up at him. "Just give us a few more minutes?"

"It's okay, Bianca, I'm done… we can go… I did what I came to do."

Bianca looked down at Maggie and could see the obvious track marks of tears on her face, but said nothing of them. She turned back to the security guard. "I guess we're done, please thank all the other staff for us."

The guard smiled and nodded, and the crowd that had been standing off at some distance began to filter through the maze of tombstones to the one they were all there to see. The book of sonnets was quickly hidden from view by more flowers being thrown onto the ever growing pile.

"It's oddly beautiful here," stated Maggie. "I mean… I know it's all dead people, but some of these tombstones are gorgeous… let's go for a walk." She looked up at Bianca. "Want to?"

"Alright," Bianca said, unsure of how else to reply. She folded her arms in front of her, her purse dangling from her right elbow, and she followed Maggie. The shorter girl seemed to just wander aimlessly through the forest of granite, her hands shoved deep in her jean pockets.

July 28th – 1:15 PM

Patrick was following them from a respectful distance as they walked through the seemingly endless rows of headstones. His eyes were constantly scanning, searching for interlopers in brown leather jackets.

Ahead of him, Bianca walked a step behind Maggie, who would occasionally stop and read a tombstone, but hadn't said anything in quite awhile.

"Maggie… you do realize how big this place is right? Do you plan on walking every aisle? Because if you want to, we will, but I'll need to run home for better walking shoes."

Maggie smiled. "Naw, I just… just didn't feel like leaving yet. You don't have to walk with me if you don't want."

"Why don't we do this… there's a nice tree over there, and we can sit down and rest for a few minutes, and I can take off these stupid heels I decided to wear."

The shorter girl laughed. "Okay." She turned and looked back at Patrick. "Come on Frenchie, let's go sit under the tree!"

Even at this distance, it was easy to spot him rolling his eyes.

July 28th – 1:30 PM

Bianca's heels were off and lying on the ground next to her, her legs pulled back and to the side, her hand behind her, rubbing her feet. Maggie sat cross legged, playing with a blade of grass, while Patrick leaned against the tree, his jacket off, still scanning for roaming photographers.

None of the trio spoke, they just enjoyed the light breeze of the summer day, and the thankfully cool weather.

"So…" Maggie finally threw into the silence, "when are one of you finally going to ask me all the questions I know are swirling around in your heads?"

Patrick grinned and looked down at the ground, kicking it with his shoe.

Bianca tried to act innocent. "Questions? What makes you think we have questions?"

"Yeah… right…" Maggie stuck a blade of grass in her mouth and leaned back, using her palms to support her, "Obviously The Doors meant something to me and Frankie, but neither of you want to be the first to ask."

"It's not our place," replied Patrick. "If you wanted us to know, you'd tell us."

"Well, you might want to sit down then, this could take a while."

April 26th, 1996 – 7:30 PM

"Yeah Mom! That's it! Just keep drinking! Drink it all down real good! Nothing like forgetting not one, but TWO fourteenth birthdays in one day!" Frankie slammed the door to hers and Maggie's bedroom. "Stupid witch," she mumbled.

Maggie laid on her bed, propped up by pillows, her knees drawn up with her American History book resting there for her to read. She looked up at her sister. "Done yet?"

Frankie looked down at her and snarled. "Go back to reading your government approved, sanitized version of 'history'," she said with air quotes.

"Thank you… I think I will." Maggie went back to reading about the 1848 gold rush in California, as Frankie plopped down on her bed, landing on her stomach. She pulled out some book, not a school text, that she had been engrossed in for days. Maggie kept glancing over at her, the anger still obvious in the way she held her body. "What did you expect, Frankie? Did you think that this year she'd miraculously turn into a real mom and bake us a cake?"

"Do… your… homework," Frankie said as she turned the page in her book.

Maggie shut her textbook with a loud thud. "Too bad," she set it aside and spun on the bed so she was now facing Frankie, her feet on the floor. "Come on Frankie… really… what did you expect?"

She looked over her shoulder at her sister. "Just what I got Mary Margaret, a drunken mother who could care less if we existed. Just what I expected…" she turned and looked at her book again, "but I had HOPED for more."

That hit Maggie in the gut. She had given up hope of their mother ever being more than a drunk ages ago - she couldn't believe Frankie ever still dared to hope. She sat there studying her feet, her arms out to the sides, palms flat against the bed. "Frankie… seeing as I didn't even hope, I… I got us something."

She hopped off her bed and turned around to kneel next to her bed, pulling something out from underneath. As she stood and turned, she held out a plastic grocery store container that held two frosted cupcakes. "I knew we had no hope of getting a cake from Mom, so I thought I'd take care of that."

Frankie looked over her shoulder again. She looked at the cupcakes… up to Maggie's face… back down to the cupcakes. "My respect for you will grow by leaps and bounds if you tell me you stole those."

"Sorry… cleaned out the Anders' gutters for the money."

"Damn it," Frankie said, closing her eyes and shaking her head. She got to all fours and spun around so she was sitting on the edge of her bed, tossing her book to the side. "Well… stolen or not, I'll still eat them."

"Excuse me? 'Them'? Two of them, two of us dear sister," Maggie said as she sat down on her bed to face Frankie. "One each, in other words, seeing as I know you don't like to do math and all." She opened the container, took one out for herself, and handed the container over to Frankie who took hers out and tossed the empty plastic to the side.

Frankie started peeling the paper wrapper back. "You do realize how utterly pathetic this is, right?"

Maggie rolled her eyes as she lifted the cupcake to her mouth. "I'm going to have to remember all this next time I try do something special for us."

"No, no, I… I appreciate it, I just… how sad is it we… I mean you, have to clean gutters to buy cupcakes for our birthday? Sure, mommy dearest out there may not have baked a cake, but she could have at least stopped and bought us one when she was buying another gallon jug of what ever booze was on sale this week."

"It's just you and me Frankie… we can only count on each other."

"I know," she said as they both finished their cupcakes in silence. After a few moments, Frankie smacked her hands on her thighs, brushing away the crumbs. "You know, if we have to throw our own birthday party, we should probably have some music!" She got on the floor and dug around under her bed until she pulled out a compact disc.

Maggie had learned long ago that if things came from under the other twin's bed, it was best not to ask where they had originally come from, because it usually involved a source she would rather not know about. "What is it?"

"I heard it over at Rick's house the other day and it just felt like it spoke to me, you know?" she said as she popped open the top of the CD player.

"Rick's, huh?"

"Shut it, Maggie."

Maggie did 'shut it', but it troubled her that her sister was hanging out with a known drug dealer, one she had warned her off of several times over the past year. While Maggie didn't suspect anything sexual, she did worry about what her sister wasn't getting involved in.

Frankie skipped a few tracks and hit play, quickly returning to plop down on the edge of the bed. She fell backwards where she sat, leaving her feet on the floor, but otherwise sprawled out comfortably. She folded her arms so that her hands were on her stomach, her fingers interlaced.

At first the music was so quiet, Maggie couldn't really tell it was playing, but then it sounded like some sort of helicopter flying over. The music hit her ear with an oddness she hadn't heard before. Then the man with the sleepy voice started to sing about what sounded so eerily like their lives. Frankie joined in as soon as he started, oblivious to anyone else in the world than her and the man.

**_This is the end  
Beautiful friend  
This is the end  
My only friend, the end_**

"Well that's perky."

"Shhhh," admonished Frankie.

**_Of our elaborate plans, the end  
Of everything that stands, the end  
No safety or surprise, the end  
I'll never look into your eyes... again_**

"Seriously Frankie, could this be any more depressing?"

"Just listen, damn it."

**_Can you picture what will be  
So limitless and free  
Desperately in need... of some... stranger's hand  
In a... desperate land_**

Maggie started to get it. Maybe it wasn't quite as depressing as she thought. The long musical interlude played, no lyrics being sung, she thought of saying something, but since Frankie made no move to get up, she figured it wasn't over yet.

_**Lost in a roman...wilderness of pain  
And all the children are insane  
All the children are insane**_

**_All the children are insane  
Waiting for the summer rain, yeah_**

The voice trailed off, sounding as if the song ended, and forest creature sounds replaced the man with the sleepy voice. "Well that was interesting…" Maggie said, acting as if she was about to leave.

"Just wait a minute."

The sound did come back, harder, more intense, primal and animalistic. Frankie leaped from her bed and started spinning around in a circle. Her ponytail spinning out behind her as she threw her head back and let the music wash over her. As the drummer beat a signal the song was coming to an end, she collapsed to the floor breathless. "Isn't that just the best?"

"It didn't make any sense though!"

Frankie rolled her eyes. "You dork… you didn't listen to it," she said as she got up and walked over to the CD player again.

"Hello… I was sitting right here, of course I heard it."

"No, you didn't. You heard it, but you didn't _hear it_," she said as she hit the player again.

The second time it went much the same as Frankie danced for the entire length of the song, and Maggie tried to listen closer to the words this time and what they meant. The song kept repeating, and the girls kept discussing. Their drunken mother finally pounded on the door at one point, telling them to cut the racket, but they ignored her since they had long before locked it. She just wandered off, mumbling about 'those damned girls'.

They listened to the whole album that night, and on several other occasions, but it always came back to that song, and to one verse mainly:

**_Can you picture what will be  
So limitless and free  
Desperately in need... of some... stranger's hand  
In a... desperate land_**

They would discuss their dreams, how they wanted to escape the life they knew, and mark this chapter of their life with "_The End_".

July 28th – 2:00 PM

"And so that's why I felt the need to come here at least once. It was one of the few things Frankie and I ever connected over in our teen years, and it allowed us to dream."

Bianca reached up and wiped away a tear with her right hand. Patrick smiled a proud, almost fatherly smile at Maggie, before he resumed scanning the tombstones for marauding photographers.

"So… come on," Maggie said as she stood up and brushed off the back of her pants. "Lets stop hanging out in a graveyard all day… what are we, goth kids or something?" she asked to no one in particular, but gave Bianca a wink.

July 28th – 8:00 PM

Bianca walked back into the kitchen as Maggie finished cleaning off the plates from dinner. "I think Guilia completely wore out Miranda today, she's already asleep."

"Not surprised, probably had her busy helping her cook the never ending supply of pasta. We have yet another restocked refrigerator, filled with carbohydrates as far as they eye can see!"

Bianca rolled her eyes. "She does it with love Maggie."

"Oh, I know, but man, I'm going to have to consider joining a gym soon, I have no clue how she stays so fit, let alone Patrick."

"Gee… what ways could a married couple work together to burn off calories? I wonder…" Bianca waggled her eyebrows.

Maggie closed her eyes and leaned forward at the waist, resting her hands on either side of the sink. "Just HAD to go there, didn't you?"

"Yep!"

"Ugh… I feel… dirty now." She placed the last plate in the dishwasher and closed the door. "I need to go wash this filth off myself… meet you in the den in a bit?"

Bianca stepped forward and placed her left hand on Maggie's left hand, which still rested on the sink. "Actually, I was wondering… would you mind if I came in and listened to your Doors CD while you showered?"

Maggie's eyes glistened as she listened to her friend continue.

"It's just, I've never listened to them that closely and, after hearing your story today, I would like to really give them a listen now, and hear what it is you and Frankie heard...if I'm not intruding, that is."

Maggie looked down at their hands and choked back a couple of tears. "I… I think that would be a great idea, actually… I…" she looked back up at Bianca, "I imagine Frankie would definitely approve of me sharing it with you."

Bianca smiled as Maggie intertwined their fingers and led them off to her bedroom. She opened the door allowing Bianca to enter and closed it behind them. As she did, she could have sworn a pleasant, warm sensation was spreading outwardly from the tattoo she shared with her sister.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

August 3rd – 11:37 PM

"_I can't take this anymore,"_ thought Bianca as she ran her hands through her bangs, pushing them further back on her head. _"How many more times are we going to make out, get close, and then at the last second she runs to the bathroom?"_

"_Ever since the Morrison grave visit and listening to The Doors together, she's been spooning me harder and harder… kissing with more passion… her hands roaming more… and when we get to 'that moment', that all-or-nothing, do-or-die moment… off she runs."_

Maggie looked in the mirror, splashing cold water on her face. _"Slow… slow… slow… have to go slow. No rush to this…. she's not Jonathan… you don't have to prove anything… don't want to scare her again… my god she's pretty… back on track, back on track… slow… slow…"_

August 4th – 7:40 AM

Bianca sat at the corner table, glancing over a manila folder of printed out email from friends and family back in Pine Valley.

Maggie stood in the furthest corner she could, her back to the cabinets, her arms folded tightly against her chest in an obvious sign of uncertainty. It was the other occupant of the room she was uncertain of. They had been so close to sex that night on the couch, and now… now she was freezing up anytime they got even close.

She was studying Bianca from afar, trying to put her finger on what it could be. The raven haired girl's fingers of her right hand rested in a coffee mug handle loop, her left hand kept the folder flat. She had on her black Versace power suit, with the fine gray pin stripes, and the just below the knees skirt. She had on those damned three inch stilettos of hers that made her calf muscles look like the most defined muscles in the history of the world. Her hair was tucked behind her left ear, her lips were slightly parted, a sign of concentration for her.

"_No matter how you cut it, that is one sexy woman… now, why am I freezing up when I was so eager just two weeks ago?"_ Maggie thought. _"I mean, I'm her girlfriend, we got past that. We kiss like it's going out of style, so what is it? Why can't I take that final step to sex? And why can't she seem to even talk to me this morning?"_

Bianca continued reading through an email from Reggie as she lifted her coffee cup to her lips. She was reading the words, but her total lack of focus was preventing her from absorbing them. She had read the same sentence three times now, unable to make sense of it. She knew the source of the problem stood in the far corner of the room.

She tilted the mug back against her lips, the hot acidity hitting her tongue, snapping her back to reality. "_Damn it Maggie… we get so close, and you run… why does this all seem so oddly familiar? Thank god Jamie's far away, poor boy would probably get run over by a car again."_

Bianca's cell phone rang, she looked at the ID; it was her personal assistant, Aurélia, calling with her morning schedule. She hit the answer button, "Aurélia, what's on for this morning?" She was too frustrated to deal with the formalities of courtesy. She wanted to get into work and forget about last night… and the night before that… and the night before that.

"Bianca?"

Not the voice she wanted to hear right this moment. "Yes?" she asked pointedly.

"Don't forget I have classes today."

"Oh, yeah… okay. Aurélia? Please make sure arrangements are made for Miranda today? Thank you."

"_Well, that went well… she actually said a whole word to me," _thought Maggie.

The buzzer on the kitchen intercom went off, signaling Patrick had arrived. Maggie went out to the front hallway to greet him and noticed Bianca didn't even look up at her as she walked by. She sighed as she heard the elevator ding and she opened the door to a widely grinning Patrick. "Hey."

His smile disappeared. "Well, you're in a good mood this morning."

"Eh… first day of classes… a bad night," her voice trailed off.

Patrick made to say something, but thought better of it, letting the subject drop. He followed her into the kitchen, and could see from the look on Bianca's face when she looked up to acknowledge him that it hadn't been a bad night for just one of them. "This is going to be a long day, I can see," he mumbled.

"Okay Aurélia, Patrick just got here, I'll be in the office shortly, see you then," she hung up the phone and stood up, collecting her documents together.

"Will you be home for dinner?" came the timid question.

Bianca paused, the hair on the back of her neck bristling. "Yes, not sure exactly what time though… I'll call you later."

"Okay."

Bianca turned to walk out of the kitchen, pausing for a moment, a remorseful look passing over her face. She turned to look at Maggie, her lips parting as if she were about to say something, but she stopped herself. Licking her lips, she turned to look up at Patrick, "After you get us to the office, Patrick, can you come back and take Maggie to her classes?"

"Of course."

"Thanks, Patrick… Maggie?"

"Yeah?"

"Is 6:30 alright?"

Maggie smiled. "Yeah, that should be fine."

Bianca gave her a weak smile and turned to leave. Patrick nodded to Maggie and followed his employer out.

August 4th – 8:15 AM

Bianca pushed deeper into the back seat of the limo, sinking into the rich cushions, and turned her head to stare absently at the passing tree lined streets. _"Do you really have any right to be mad with her? You know what the problem is, the both of us don't want to rush things, but for very different reasons. For Maggie its all about what happened two weeks ago, for myself, its about not rushing Maggie into such a life altering situation… but really… what other step is next outside of what we've been doing? We're girlfriends… we technically live with each other… what else are we going to do?"_

The limo swung down into the underground parking of the Cambias building, pulling up to the elevators to shorten the walk for Bianca and Miranda. Patrick got out and opened the door for his passengers. "Ma'am… why don't you care for Miranda? I'll carry the bags up to the office for you."

Bianca smiled warmly at Patrick; he took such good care of them all. "Thank you, Patrick, that would be a very big help."

Patrick walked over to the elevator and pushed the call button. As the trio approached, a voice called out "Hold the doors, please," in French.

Bianca saw Patrick roll his eyes and he mumbled something in Italian, a sure sign to her he was hiding whatever it was he was saying. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a familiar, but long unseen face approaching.

"Oh… Ms. Montgomery."

"Hello, Jean," she replied, her voice flat. She hadn't seen Jean Dumas since her first day at Cambias six months ago. He was going to be her personal assistant, but after insulting Maggie, she had promptly sent him back to the assistant pool. "How have you been?"

"Well, very well actually," he said with a smirk. The little group got on the elevator, Patrick made sure to stand between Jean and his female employer. This, of course, did not deter Jean, who leaned forward to speak around Patrick. "And I hear, and see, you are doing well."

Bianca shot him a look, not quite sure what he meant by 'see', but she let it slide. "Yes, I am doing well, thank you."

Patrick pressed the button for the top floor, Jean the button for the floor just below that. Patrick sighed.

"And Ms. Stone, she appears to be doing well also."

Now Bianca knew he meant the tabloids. "We are all fine, Jean, thank you."

"I try to keep up with the latest news of course, but it's so difficult with the projects I have going and…"

Patrick looked up and saw they were just passing the eleventh floor. He reached over and hit the button for the twelfth. The car came to a stop, and the doors opened. He leaned over and held the open button while he turned to look at Jean. His glare was menacing and firm. "Jean… have you put on some weight?"

Jean looked up at Patrick who stood a good five inches taller than him. "Perhaps a kilo."

"Thought so, perhaps you would like to take the stairs for the next seventeen floors? Work off some of that excess weight?"

Jean looked past Patrick; Bianca could barely contain her smirk. "I… I guess I will," Jean replied. As he walked out of the elevator he turned to say something, but the doors began closing and Patrick glared, his words went unheard.

Bianca looked up at Patrick as they resumed their ascent. "Patrick?"

"Yes, Ma'am?"

"Would you like a raise?"

"That was a freebie Ma'am as I enjoyed it too much… and I already pay enough in taxes."

August 4th – 11:30 AM

Maggie came out of her morning biology class, pen in mouth like a horse bit, papers and books pressed against her chest, prepared to plop down on a step for the next hour and read. As she made to sit, she spotted the familiar site of Patrick leaning back against the hood of the limo, newspaper at waist height, ankles crossed. "What are you still doing here?" she inquired.

"Nice to see you, too," he said without looking up. "Bianca said she didn't need me until later and I thought you might want to go to lunch."

Maggie stared at him suspiciously. "This wouldn't have anything to do with this morning would it?"

Patrick turned the page in the newspaper, scanning it from top to bottom, still not looking up at Maggie. "This morning at the apartment, or this morning in the car when you didn't say one word while I drove you here?"

Maggie chuckled and looked down at the ground as she walked closer to him, turning to mimic his pose against the hood of the car. "Either or my friend… either or. With you, I know getting food is code for," she put on an over-the-top French accent to her voice, "I know you need to talk, let's do it some place seemingly safe where you will open up and tell me of your inner most thoughts, and then I shall drop down upon you my old and wise Frenchie wisdom. It shall hit you like lightning, the heavens shall open and you will be awe struck by wise ways!" Maggie turned to look at Patrick who was now staring at her, brow furrowed.

"You get all that from 'want to go to lunch'?"

"Pretty much."

Patrick folded his newspaper, and tucked it under his arm. "Just get in the car you wise-ass American."

August 4th – 11:30 AM

"_Shut up."_

"…and the quarterly projections from the Estonia office came in…"

"_SHUT UP!"_

"…and look to be on target…"

"_If I wish hard enough, perhaps his head will explode… will that make him shut up and go away? Let's see… ehhhhhhhhhhh damn it… he's still alive."_

"…so in conclusion…"

"_THANK YOU GOD!"_

"…things seem to be up across the board."

"Thank you, Josef, that was… enlightening."

Aurélia opened the door to the office and stepped in. "Ms. Montgomery? Your 11:30 appointment has arrived and is waiting in the conference room. Josef, if you're done, please follow me," she said with a smile.

Pleasantries were exchanged, Josef departed, and Bianca walked over and opened a door to the conference room. Her 11:30 appointment ran over, squealing, and hugged her legs. "Hey, Munchie! Did you have fun with Aurélia?"

"Uh-huh," the little girl replied while nodding.

"Good! Are you ready to get some food?"

"Yeah!"

"Alright then, so is Mommy, let's go!"

Aurélia stepped into the room quickly. "Ms. Montgomery, I know you're on your way to lunch, but it's your private line. It's Ms. Fargate."

Bianca smiled. "Wow, she's up early. Could you take Miranda down to the cafeteria for me?"

"Of course Ma'am," she said smiling and holding out her hand for Miranda to take.

As the two of them walked way, Bianca called after them, "Aurélia! No matter how much she begs, no ice cream!" Aurélia and Miranda giggled as they left the room. "Yeah… she's getting ice cream," Bianca sighed.

She walked back to her desk in the main office, and picked up her private phone line. "Myrtle! What are you doing up so early?"

"I couldn't sleep any more darlin', I just had the most horrible feeling in my gut… and I knew it was coming from Paris. What's going on over there that I can tell all the way over here?"

Bianca grinned, closed her eyes, and slumped down in her large leather chair. "Myrtle… you amaze me some days."

"Only some days? I'm losin' my touch!"

Bianca chuckled. "Okay, here's the deal…"

August 4th – 11:45 AM

Maggie nearly shot soda out her nose. "PATRICK! No fair making me laugh!"

"Well, I had to do something to get you to stop drinking and answer my question of what's wrong. And really, who doesn't love a joke about a priest, a rabbi, and a nun?"

Wiping her face off with a napkin, Maggie glared at him. "Bastard."

"So…"

"So…" Maggie threw her napkin on the table and absent mindedly picked up a french fry and started chewing it while she replied, "you know… I'm not really sure you're the… um… man for this job."

"You never know until you try."

"It's about sex, Patrick… girl sex… between me and Bianca… as in the two of us…"

"I… get the mental image, thank you," he said while screwing up his face. "Really though… who else could you talk to about this?"

Maggie sighed. "I know… it's not like I'm swimming in lesbian friends. Matter of fact, the only other one I know really well is Lena, and… yeah, I don't see me calling her for advice about sleeping with Bianca."

Patrick chuckled. "So you two… haven't yet?"

"No… I mean… are you sure you want to hear this?"

"Maggie… I was in the commandos, I think I can handle talking to a close friend about her personal problems. And I did ask, after all."

"Okay, okay. We've… gotten close… but at the last moment, I… seem to run," she said, squinting one eye and cocking her head to the right so it touched her shoulder.

"So… you're comfortable building up to it, but not the final step."

Maggie smiled a quiet, personal smile, "Yeah, I'm totally fine with the buildup," she said wistfully.

"Maggie…"

"Sorry, sorry!" she said snapping back to reality, adjusting herself to sit more upright, "I just… yeah… totally comfortable."

"So, it's not the idea of touching a woman that is doing it to you, then?"

"No… I… I mean, sure, it's new and different, but it doesn't feel odd in anyway, you know?"

"And you love her?"

Maggie's face took on a quizzical air as she looked down at her fries again. "Of course I do! I mean… I'm her girlfriend now, and I've always loved her on some level."

"And she loves you?"

"Yeah… totally."

"Have either of you said it… since you started dating?"

Maggie stopped stirring her fry in the ketchup. She stared at it. It was suddenly the most fascinating object she had ever seen. The little salt flakes on the exterior husk shimmering in the sun light, shifting from opaque to clear, depending on their angle to the sun. The ketchup was red… like the blobs of light her brain was producing in front of her eyes. The world seemed louder for some reason, but more precise. The cars whizzing by on the street made whining noses, not unlike a sword chopping through the air. These sounds, and sights, were her whole world now, everything else seemed blocked out, non-existent.

"Maggie… are you okay?"

She snapped back to reality, shaking her head to clear out the clutter of the last moment. "Yeah, I… I just…" her wrist went flat on the table, and she looked up at Patrick again. "Your question… it hit a spot I wasn't expecting, I guess. I mean… I know we love each other, I know that, it's a fact, but… but I'm not sure we HAVE said that since we started dating and meant it in that romantic manner."

"Then perhaps that is what is missing… and that's not something you can just flip a switch on. You have to build up to it, and after that… then the rest will follow naturally."

"And maybe that's been part of my problem in the past… especially with Jon… I rushed everything… didn't make sure it was all in order first…" Maggie stared at Patrick. Her eyes narrowing, forming slits, her nose scrunching up.

"What?" Patrick asked uneasily.

"You know… in the right light… you remind me of someone back in Pine Valley…"

August 4th – 12:02 PM

"Myrtle… how are you able to boil things down so precisely? Really… I'm not sure if it's a gift or witchcraft."

"If it was witchcraft darlin', I would be on my broom and comin' over to see you and your precious bundle of joy daily."

Bianca smiled warmly. "And you would always be welcome. Back to the 'problem' at hand though… you really think it is just us doing things out of order… as usual?"

"Sex is sex, but when the hearts are involved, it's a whole 'nother matter. If you were just two people meeting in a bar, looking for a fling, then you could just go right to it, but with you two, it's so much more than that. Just calling each other 'girlfriend' is one step, the love has to come next."

"Yeah, and I'm certainly not one for flings." Bianca mumbled. "Well… I think you're right, Myrtle, we just have to put everything in perspective. There's no reason to rush any aspect of our relationship, we have the rest of our lives to get where we're going."

"Don't go putting the cart before the horse, Darlin'. This is still very new to the both of you. She hasn't dated a woman before, and you got the girl you've been pining for, any number of things could still happen."

"Oh, trust me, Myrtle… I know, oh how I know, but it just… it just feels right, you know?" Bianca glanced at a clock, "Shoot, I really should get down to the cafeteria, I just know Aurélia will end up giving her ice cream. Okay… slow down, take our time, make sure the love is there… got it."

"Love makes it all better, trust me on this."

"I always trust you, Myrtle… always."

August 4th – 6:20 PM

"Thanks, Patrick. I'll see you tomorrow morning," Bianca said as she closed the front door to her apartment building. She unbuttoned her suit jacket as she walked towards the elevator. Patrick had already brought Miranda and Maggie home, so she was just juggling her messenger bag as she walked.

Stepping into the waiting lift, she pressed the button for the penthouse and leaned against the railing, letting her head rest against the faux wood finish. She closed her eyes, and smiled a small smile as she thought, _"Home… I'm home… we're making this a home… my girlfriend, my daughter… this is home now."_

The building wasn't very tall, so the ride was short. When she stepped out of the car to cross the small hallway to her door, she was greeted by a note taped there:

**Dear B – **

**Please go directly upstairs to wash up and change for dinner. Casual is fine. Come down when you're finished.**

**M**

Bianca read the note again, confused. She finally shrugged and walked in. She dropped her messenger bag on the entryway table, and placed her keys in the dish. "Maggie, I'm home!" she called out. There was no reply. As she walked by the dining room, the folding partition Patrick had used not long ago to safeguard them from photographers, was across the entrance, another note taped there, "**Keep on a walkin'… be back here at 7.**"

She laughed and shook her head as she went upstairs to wash up and change.

August 4th – 7:00 PM

"MAGGIE! I'm starving! Let me in!"

The divider moved, Maggie was standing there in an emerald green top and very tight jeans, her hair pulled up and secured with a banana clip. "Hi there," she said with a big grin.

"Hi yourself," Bianca replied as she tried to look over Maggie at the dining room table.

"Um… hello? Down here… hotness waiting for a kiss?"

Bianca blushed. "Sorry…" as she leaned down and gave Maggie a deep kiss.

"That's better! Now come on in," Maggie moved to the side, allowing Bianca to walk past her, taking note of her gray wrap top, with the plunging neckline, and tear drop necklace as she did. Maggie blew her cheeks out and her eyes went wide. "So not easy some days," she mumbled.

"What did you say?" Bianca asked over her shoulder.

"Oh, nothing… have a seat."

She took in the changes from how the room normally looked; the lights were off, just a few candles were on the table and the spill over light from the kitchen. "So…" she said as she took a seat at the table, "what's all this? And where's Miranda?"

"This… is a new chapter for us," Maggie said. "And I shall be right back… pour yourself some wine while I'm gone. And Miranda is at Patrick and Guilia's… we needed some time for us tonight."

Bianca watched her walk away… closely. Once she was out of the room, Bianca picked up the wine bottle, poured some in a glass, gulped it, and poured some more. She then picked up Maggie's glass and poured some for her too. Just as she set the bottle down, Maggie walked in with a silver domed tray.

"I wish I was a better cook, because our romantic dinner amounts too…" she lifted off the lid, "pizza."

Bianca chuckled. "Sounds fine to me! I'm starving… and… well it is kind of romantic when you think about it."

Maggie smiled, unsurprised Bianca would catch the connection. "Because we had it the first night we were here. New chapter then… new chapter now."

"Well… it depends," she said nervously, "what this new chapter is." She took a piece of pizza and put it in front of herself, not totally sure her appetite was still there.

As Maggie took a piece for herself, she fidgeted in her chair to sit more upright. "It's… I know I've been freaking you out with…" she paused, rethinking her words for a moment, "I know how certain things have not gone the way you hoped, and I know it's been frustrating you."

Bianca blushed. "It's too be expected though… this is all new to you."

"That's not it though, Bianca… when I'm in bed with you, I feel… I feel like I'm comfortable. For the first time ever, I truly feel comfortable, like this is right and where I belong."

Bianca's blush deepened even more. "I'm glad… I was worried that…"

"That I was uncomfortable touching you?"

"Yeah."

"No, that's not it at all… and it's not even what happened a couple weeks ago. I think it all comes down to this time… this time, more than any other time, I can't rush it. I love you too much to rush it, and I have to make sure that this is right. I didn't realize it until today, when I talked to Patrick…"

Bianca gulped. "You talked to Patrick about… OUR SEX LIFE?"

Maggie leaned forward and held up a hand, "Believe me, it was far weirder for me than it is for you at the moment, but he did help me realize something. Just because we've said we're girlfriends and we know we love each other, are we sure we're IN love?"

Bianca had to chuckle. "I swear his last name has to be Fargate."

"Spooky, isn't it?"

"At times, yes."

"But do you see what I mean… you know I love you, I know you love me, but are we IN love?"

"Probably not yet, no… we're close, very close, but probably not all the way yet, no."

"And so while I want to keep sleeping with you, I think maybe that's all we should leave it at for now."

"Myrtle said pretty much the same thing…"

"What is it with us that people always have to TELL us what to do? We seem to know the answers, but until someone says it to us, we can't seem to realize it."

"It's just human nature, I think. The easiest answer can be right in front of you, but until someone with an objective view point says it, it can be pretty difficult to see it sometimes."

"Yeah… I think you're right." An awkward silence descended on the room, and both girls picked at the toppings on their slices of pizza. "So… are we agreed then? We work on the love angle for now, and hold off on the physical?"

"Totally agreed… I think we have all the time in the world to get where we're going," Bianca replied with a smile.

Maggie's grin broadened. "I think so too… I really do."

With that, the girls ate their pizza and chatted about their days, sipping wine and telling tales of the helpers in their lives. After a movie and the usual clean up, they went to bed in Maggie's room. Bianca on her right side, Maggie behind her, arm draped across her waist, both with huge smiles… and no hurried trips to the bathroom for splashes of cold water.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

August 20th – 11:00 AM

Maggie walked into the kitchen from her room and plopped down in the chair opposite Bianca at the corner table. "What ya doin'?"

Bianca's head was bowed, reading a magazine. She looked up with only her eyes. "Solving world hunger… what does it look like I'm doing?"

"Whoa, someone is testy today!"

Bianca smiled and looked back down at her magazine, flipping a page. "Sorry. Guess I haven't mastered your smart ass streak yet."

"You'll get there, young one."

"Gee… thanks," she said with a laugh. She closed her magazine and tossed it across the table. "In all actuality… nothing! What are you up to?"

"Well, my paper is done, and I actually have the rest of the weekend open now."

Bianca leaned forward, folding her arms to lean on. "Oh really? So just what did you have in mind to entertain yourself?"

Maggie leaned forward, resting on her left arm, her lips hovering inches from her girlfriend's. "Well… I was thinking maybe we should go out tonight."

"Well, that certainly sounds like a plan to me," she said as she leaned in even closer. "And just where did you have in mind?"

"I was thinking maybe some dinner, and then…" as she got to where their lips were close enough to feel each other's breath on their own moist lips.

"Uh-huh."

Maggie went in for the kiss, but just before their lips made full contact, she mumbled "Dancing."

Bianca pulled back. "That was so not fair!"

"You like dancing!"

"Yeah, in small groups! I just know you want to go to some big, loud club!"

"Bianca… we have been in Paris almost six months, it has one of the most happening night life scenes in the world, so I have heard," Maggie resisted the urge to chuckle at Bianca squinting her eyes and glaring at her, "It won't kill us to go out for one night and, you know, be young. We are young, remember? And somehow I don't remember you complaining when we went to prom," she said with an enormous grin.

"Just had to go there, didn't you?"

"Yep! I need this, Bianca… the rest of this semester looks to be nuts, and before I crawl into a deep dark hole of medical texts, I just want one night to be young and carefree."

Bianca stared at her for a moment, her eyes narrowing, studying her. "Fine… go call Patrick and see if Guilia is free tonight."

Maggie clapped excitedly and stood up, lunging to throw her arms around Bianca's neck. "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

"You're so not welcome," she said with a chuckle.

Maggie pushed back from Bianca, her hands resting on the taller girl's shoulders. "Oh! You know what this means, don't you?"

"Oh god… clothes shopping?"

"Oh come on, you know we have to have the PERFECT outfits!"

August 20th – 10:30 PM

"Well, considering the number of pictures Guy shot, I guess we got the right outfits," Bianca grunted as they made their way past the doormen, entering into the Redlight night club.

"Seriously, how does he ALWAYS seem to know where we're going to be before even we do?"

"I have no clue, if I did, I'd put an end to it as quickly as possible."

"Patrick seemed none to pleased to see him."

Bianca grinned largely, and cocked an eyebrow. "Good!"

Maggie rolled her eyes. "Come on, I'm dying to get in here." She grabbed Bianca's right hand with her left and dragged her through the entrance hall into the main room of the cavernous club.

Laser lights split the haze that hung in the air, a mixture of cigarette smoke and body heat that was as intoxicating as it was nauseating. The 'thumpa-thumpa' of the music hit them squarely in the chest of their "Looks Do Kill" outfits.

Bianca transformed her normally "regal" appeal to dub herself "London Chic". The evening's attire: a black halter tied at the back of the neck, tightly fit to highlight her hour-glass figure which seamlessly melted over her perfectly matching 'painted-on' jeans. The cut of the jeans was key to showing off her shoes which were open-toed and secured with bright red, thin straps that extended above her ankles. Earlier in the evening, upon hearing the click of Bianca's step, Maggie had been rendered speechless as she slowly drank in the sight of Bianca. The noticeable effect on the shorter woman had always acted as Bianca's 'seal of approval'.

Maggie's hair was pulled up in messiness, showing off her neck, which was especially emphasized by her bright blue cut-neck top that seductively slid off her shoulders and so tantalizingly revealed her hot pink bra straps. The whole top gave room to breathe until you hit her hips where the shirt became stretch to fit over her mini skirt. Maggie decided on above-the-knee suede boots which fully accentuated her legs, daring you not to check out her thighs. Maggie completed the appeal of the "smoky eyed school girl" by using none other than her boots to hold the only necessities a girl truly needs - she secured her i.d. and money inside one boot and tucked a tiny lip gloss into the other.

They were sexy by anyone's standards, and after a quick survey of their 'competition' in the club that night, it was obvious there would be many tongues set a wagging by their newly purchased looks. While neither woman was looking for a fresh notch on their non-existent belts, it never hurt to get a bit of an ego boost.

They maneuvered their way through the crowd in serpentine fashion, finally making it to the bar. Bianca leaned over the service area and yelled at the bartender for a bottle of their best champagne. When the Cambias corporate card was passed over, the girls found themselves quickly whisked to the VIP section of the club by a hostess. They toasted with their champagne flutes to the power of the name that seemed to make all things in Paris possible, ignoring the darker portions of its history.

Maggie started to slide out of the booth. "Come on!"

Bianca took another sip of her champagne. "Really, Maggie, you go, I'm going to stay here. I'll be fine."

The shorter woman swung out of the booth, turned around and leaned over, putting her face inches from Bianca's. "Sweetie? You do not go out and spend the insane amount of money we did on clothes today, to sit in a booth and watch. You get out on the floor and you shake what your momma gave you, which, in your case, is quite a lot," her infamous lopsided grin appearing.

Bianca grinned and blushed all at once. "From ta-ta's to boom boom?"

Maggie threw her head back in a laugh, returning to stare her girlfriend in the face once more. "From ta-ta's to boom boom!" She held out her hand, waiting for Bianca to accept the silent invitation.

Bianca looked from the hand to Maggie's sparkling eyes; they were so full of life and desire. How could she say no to that? She couldn't, or more precisely, wouldn't. She set her glass down, took her girlfriend's hand, and was led out to the dance floor.

August 20th – 11:58 PM

The non-stop 'thumpa-thumpa' kept driving the heaving sea of humanity. At times it was difficult to tell where you started and others stopped. Close and tight was how the floor danced. Bodies of strangers, or friends, it didn't matter here, you were all pressed against one another. It was like watching the crashing waves of the ocean smash against rocks. One side of the room would move, forcing the other half to move in reaction, a non-stop back-and-forth fight for control of the dance floor turned war zone.

None of this affected these two girls; they were all the other needed. They started with a decent amount of space between them, but as the floor moved en masse, their physical gap closed, pressing them closer and closer together. Now they were at a distance that forced them into constant physical contact, any and all movements began and ended with some part of their bodies touching.

Their smiles were nervous and unsure - yes they had been sleeping in the same bed for weeks, making out, cuddling, being close, but never had they been this close in such a sexually charged atmosphere. It was palpable and tangible; a commodity traded and sold here, that passed under their noses, filling their senses, which they couldn't help but to become drunk on.

Each song sent them dancing closer and closer to an edge of a cliff that seemed unavoidable, and neither was sure they were ready for. Their bodies tingled, partially from their own desires and partially from the random, ravenous, groping hands of the faceless mob that kept finding them.

Finally Bianca couldn't take any more, she had to rest, get some semblance of fresh air. She pointed back to their table; Maggie pouted, but never stopped her own dancing. Bianca signaled for her to stay there, she'd be back in a bit. Maggie nodded and closed her eyes again, letting the never-ending bass attack wash over her.

Bianca made it back to the table, and crawled behind it to plop down on the bench. She let out a breath like she had run a marathon. The waitress for the VIP section came over immediately with a glass of water and a refill of her champagne.

The water was quickly gone and the champagne was not far behind. Bianca crossed her right leg over her left, her richly decorated foot slowly kicking back and forth. She crossed her left arm over her stomach, her right keeping the champagne in mid-air as she watched Maggie from a distance now.

She smirked as she watched boy after boy come over and try to dance with her. She would act as if she didn't notice them and slowly turn away so as not to face them any longer. This isn't to say one or two girls didn't attempt also, but they received the same treatment as the men.

After two glasses of champagne, it was obvious it was going straight to her head and the non-stop "thumpa-thumpa" wasn't helping matters. Even with the pain and growing headache, she couldn't take her eyes off of Maggie, and apparently no one else could any more. The dance floor was slowly giving her more space, the platform dancers in their 'Cabaret-meets-SS leather' look were losing their appeal as more and more eyes fell on Maggie Stone.

It became like some form of dark, symbiotic relationship. She was taking energy from them, siphoning it off, converting it, and releasing it back into the crowd. One could no longer exist without the other and neither desired it to be any other way. She owned the floor, where she moved, they followed, but she was oblivious to it all. The only time she would open her eyes would be to lock her gaze on Bianca, who would lock back. Bianca was content to watch, Maggie danced for them both.

After a few more songs, Maggie's lips were dry. Tired of licking them, she walked to the edge of the dance floor where there were some stools. She hiked her left foot up onto the lowest wrung of the stool and fished her lip gloss out of the top of her boot. She ran it over her lips a few times and returned it to its nest before she headed out to dance some more.

Every second of this maneuver had been observed by more than a few eyes. Male, female, it no longer made any difference. They either loved her or hated her, the line blurred on so many levels. The only pair of eyes she cared about were dark, sultry, and currently watching her over the lip of a champagne flute.

August 21st – 12:40 AM

Bianca wasn't sure how her friend could keep dancing this long, but her headache was getting worse. After watching Maggie for a few more minutes, she leaned her head back against the wall, closed her eyes and relaxed - not the easiest of feats in a club like this.

thumpa-thumpa- thumpa-thumpa- thumpa-thumpa- thumpa-thumpa

"_It's impossible to get a moment's relaxation with that still going on."_

thumpa-thumpa- thumpa-thumpa- thumpa-thumpa- thumpa-thumpa

"_Doesn't it ever stop? Or change for that matter!"_

thumpa-thumpa- thumpa-thumpa- thumpa-thumpa- thumpa-thumpa

"_Oh well, it's a small price to pay if it makes Maggie happy, and makes her feel better about herself."_

thumpa-thumpa- thumpa-thumpa- thumpa-thumpa- thumpa-thumpa

"_You know… it kinda sounds like a heartbeat. 'The heartbeat of the club' I guess you call it. It's what keeps the blood, the club goers, moving through the veins of the veritable beast."_

thumpa-thumpa- thumpa-thumpa- thumpa-thumpa- thumpa-thumpa

"_Everything in the world needs a heartbeat. Man… animal… corporations. Everything on the planet has something that keeps the organism moving and functioning."_

thumpa-thumpa- thumpa-thumpa- thumpa-thumpa- thumpa-thumpa

"_They're all different and can take any number of forms. Who knew what their heartbeat really was though?"_

thumpa-thumpa- thumpa-thumpa- thumpa-thumpa- thumpa-thumpa

"_Everyone learns over time what it is that would keep them moving and make life worth living. Their work… their craft… a person…"_

thump-thump… thump-thump… thump-thump…

Bianca's eyes snapped open, and she righted her head to look out on the dance floor again. She was still there, spinning, moving to the rhythm of a now unheard song for Bianca. She could see nothing but her friend… her girlfriend… "My heart," she whispered.

It came at her like a freight train. She knew it on some level, of course, but now… it was official, she was madly, deeply in love with this Queen of the Dance Floor.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

August 21st - 12:40 AM

Maggie threw her head back, sweat flinging from the tips of her hair as she did. Her whole body was slick with it, glistening. She couldn't be bothered to care, there was no stopping now. She hadn't felt this sort of freedom in ages, possibly since all those years ago in ballet class with Frankie.

This is where she belonged, in the here and now, on this spot, dancing to this song. Being free and young, not caring about the craziness of the past few years… or even the craziness of the 'now' for that matter.

It was funny to her that dancing was what was making her feel better, when it was her endless dance with Bianca that was what driving her mad. She was tired, worn down. They had to move on soon, this endless back-and-forth of romance-love-sex was tiring and infuriating, but she knew it had to be worth it. It had taken them years to get here, could a little while longer really kill her?

Yes… it possibly could. She was ready to tell Bianca she loved her, but it had to be the right moment. And everything after that… all of that had to be right also. She was in this for the long haul as far as she was concerned, and it was time to act that way. No rushing things, everything had to have its time and its place.

A beat she knew came on, one of the few so far, it was the Benassi Bros. song "Make Me Feel". It was fairly new, but she had already listened to it many times. It was sexy, slow, sultry… everything she was feeling right now. Her moves were serpentine in nature; starting at her feet she slithered to the tip of her head, forming "S" shapes, and back down again, her hands resting on her stomach, her leg muscles rippling.

_**You're gonna be my man  
You know it baby  
You're gonna be my friend  
Oh baby**_

Maggie chuckled to herself. _"Well… maybe not a 'man', but… yeah…"_

_**So darling take my hand  
Don't leave me waiting  
Don't wanna lose my friend  
No no no no baby**_

"_How true,"_ she thought, _"I don't want to lose my friend, but I think the road was chosen as soon as we declared ourselves 'girlfriends'… now let's just wrap it up!"_

_**Why don't you understand  
And you say maybe?  
My heart is in your hand  
Oh baby**_

Her moves became more violent and intense, the beat traveling through her head-to-toe, and specifically through her heart.

_**Don't make me wait too long  
Don't make me crazy!  
Don't wanna be alone  
No no no no make me feel**_

_"God Bianca… I don't wanna be alone anymore… and you do make me crazy, I…"_ she opened her eyes, and what was before her was like a scene from a dream.

Bianca was approaching, but she almost appeared to be in slow motion, the strobe lights giving her an animated appearance. The sea of dancers parted as if they knew the significance of this moment. The energy connection between them was almost visible.

She stood before Maggie now, her stare intense, purposeful. Maggie lessened her movements, barely shuffling from side-to-side.

_**Make me feel, baby  
Make me feel **_

Bianca struck with lightning speed, her hands grasping either side of Maggie's face, pulling her closer; their eyes boring holes into one another. Bianca mouthed the words, _"I love you."_

Maggie moved her hands to rest on the top of Bianca's shoulders and replied with, _"And I love you."_

_**Make me feel   
Make me feel**_

They finished their connection. Their bodies pressed hard into each other, their lips locking in a fiery, intense, kiss.

_**This love's a funny game  
It's so amazing  
I'll never be the same  
Oh baby**_

They broke their bond, their foreheads pressed together, their bodies moving to one rhythm. Their eyes were open and locked onto each other, they moved to their own separate dance. Bianca's right hand was now resting on the back of Maggie's exposed neck, her left hand resting on the shorter girl's right shoulder, moving across her upper chest, down the length of her arm and, finally, back to the shoulder again. Her right leg splitting Maggie's legs at the knees, they moved as one, back and forth to the beat. Maggie rested her hands on either side of Bianca's hips.

_**You really turn me on  
You know I'm ready  
You make me lose control  
No no no no baby**_

Their breathing was becoming labored, but not from the dancing, from their increased heart rates as they knew the moment they both had waited for was finally here.

_**Now won't you let me stay  
And be your lady  
'Cause you can light my way  
Oh baby**_

Maggie's head moved down, nuzzling in the crook of Bianca's neck.

_**You really make me strong  
My fear is fading  
I know it can't be wrong   
No no no no make me feel**_

"Oh god, Bianca… finally… finally."

And though there was no way for Bianca to have heard those words, she replied with, "Yes… finally."

_**Make me feel, baby  
Make me feel, baby  
Make me feel, baby  
Make me feel **_

August 21st – 1:45 AM

Bianca and Maggie rode in the back of the limo, Maggie sitting on Bianca's left. The taller girl's left arm wrapped around the shorter one's shoulders, their heads turned so they could look at one another. They said nothing; they just stared into each other's eyes. It seemed they had finally run out of a need for words.

Patrick glanced in the rear view mirror periodically. He hit the button for the privacy window; the women in the back didn't even seem to notice it rising. Patrick fished out his mobile phone from his inside coat pocket and dialed Guilia's number. "Darling," he said in French, "is Miranda in bed? Good… get your bag and be waiting at their front door, we'll be there in about five minutes. No, nothing's wrong, just trust me… you're not going to want to hang around."

He closed the phone, slid it in his coat pocket again, smiling contently as he drove on through the Paris night.

August 21st - 2:12 AM

They rode up in the elevator, their foreheads pressed together again; their hands locked and grasping each other, down by their sides. The elevator dinged, the doors slid open, and Guilia immediately raced across the hall, babbling something in French about, "Good night… need to go… food in fridge," and she was gone.

Bianca and Maggie stared at the elevator door for a moment, bewildered by the scene.

"Patrick?" asked Bianca.

"Patrick," confirmed Maggie.

They turned and walked into their apartment, bemused smiles lighting their faces.

Bianca set her keys in the tray and dropped her handbag haphazardly on the hallway table. She walked up next to Maggie and they stood motionless for a moment. Maybe it was a mixture of finally having a moment to stand still, not having the never-ceasing "thumpa-thumpa" of the club in their heads anymore, but the apartment was deafening in its silence.

The two women stood in the entrance hallway shoulder-to-shoulder, staring straight ahead. Their faces showed a mixture of fatigue and confusion from what had happened at the club. As if in unison, they turned their heads to look at each other, no words being spoken, broad grins creeping across their faces…

Bianca turned her body to face Maggie, then used her hands to turn the shorter girl towards her. They stared at each other for a moment and then, suddenly, Bianca shoved her against the wall next to the entrance hall table. Her kisses were ravenous, hungry, starved for the shorter girl's lips. She didn't stop there though, the kisses traveled along her jaw line, down on to her neck, and eventually her shoulders.

Maggie's eyes closed, relishing the attention from Bianca, drinking it in and never wanting it to stop. It was everything she had hoped for and more. They were finally a couple, they had finally declared their love for each other… then why was she hearing herself say, "Stop"?

Bianca was kissing Maggie's left shoulder, having just pushed the exposed hot pink bra strap to the side, to increase the amount of bare flesh available to kiss, when she heard it. Her eyes went wide, she stopped immediately, but she left her lips where they were. "Did you just say 'stop'?" Bianca said into the shorter girl's shoulder.

There was a pause. "I… I think I did."

The taller girl's eyes shut tightly in frustration and she lifted her head. "What… NOW? What is it this time? What possible roadblock could there be to stop us yet again?"

Maggie blushed and her voice was no more than a whisper. "I want it to be right?"

Bianca's expression quickly softened. "This isn't right? It sure feels like right!"

"I know, lame of me, and believe me, I want you too… god do I want you too," she said as she put her hands on Bianca's arms and ran them up and down, "but… we've been drinking… we're on an adrenaline high from the club… we're excited from saying we love each other… maybe it's just better we wait?"

Bianca bowed her head and sighed but said nothing.

"Bianca… please? I promise this isn't another stall, I'm not scared, I…"

"No, that's not it, I get it, and damn it, I agree with you, but it doesn't make this any less frustrating."

"Well… I'm sure this won't help matters any, but… I also think we should sleep in separate rooms tonight…"

"You're right… you're right," she said as she finally looked back up at her friend. "I… I just… you know that I'm ready right?"

"Yes," Maggie said as she used her right hand to cup Bianca's left cheek, "and so am I… just not tonight… it's too confusing."

Bianca lifted her left hand and placed it on top of Maggie's, smiling. "Okay, but… there better be a time soon!"

Maggie laughed. "There will be, I promise."

"Okay then… can I at least have a good night kiss?"

"Of course!" Maggie moved closer to Bianca and gave her a deep kiss… and another… and another… and another…

"Whoa, Nelly!" Bianca said as she pushed her away. "Either we stop right now, or there won't be any more waiting!"

"Me and my stupid ideas…"

They laughed, gave each other one last peck on the lips, and headed towards their original respective bedrooms… alone.

August 21st – 3:00 AM

Maggie's shower felt good. Her head was upturned, letting the streams of water hit her squarely in the face. It wasn't so much about getting clean as it was about keeping her from screaming in sexual frustration.

She wasn't going to lie to herself, or to Bianca, she was ready to finally make love to her. All the pieces were in place, but she wanted there to be no question the next day of what the motivations were. There had to be no alcohol, no adrenaline high, it just had to be the two of them entering into it fully in control of their senses.

Reluctantly she turned off the shower head and stepped out, wrapping a towel around herself quickly as the cold air of her bathroom hit her skin. She ran a hand over the foggy mirror and stared at herself as she picked up another towel and began drying her hair. Visions of how Bianca must have seen her on the dance floor popped into her head and she gave her reflection a satisfied smile. "My work here is done," she mumbled "I finally got her to admit she is IN love with me, just as I am with her. All-in-all, I would say this ranks as a pretty good night!"

August 21st – 3:00 AM

Bianca's shower was colder than usual. She also didn't usually mutter to herself as she bathed, but for now, she was. If anyone was to hear her, they would just hear what sounded like grunts, punctuated with the occasional, "Maggie."

Her washing was violent and angry, turning her skin a bright pink wherever she ran the washcloth over, scrubbing far harder than anyone would ever recommend. She hit the faucets with a determined grunt like it took some great effort to leave the inner sanctuary of her shower.

Stepping out, she wrapped a towel around herself and walked over to the sink to brush her teeth. After applying the toothpaste, she stood there going back-and-forth, up-and-down, just as her dentist had always told her, when her mind began to wander. She closed her eyes and she could see Maggie again out on that dance floor; the strobe lights bouncing off her sweat streaked skin, the music pulsating in her ears.

When she finally snapped back to reality, she found she was moving her toothbrush to the rhythm only she could hear. She blushed and finished rinsing before putting on a nightgown and heading to her bed.

She chuckled to herself as she crossed the bedroom. "Man, did she ever do a job on me tonight."

August 21st – 3:30 AM

Maggie laid in bed, staring at the ceiling in the darkness of her room. She was too wired to sleep, but too sleepy to do anything else, so she laid there, pondering her evening.

"Man, did I do a number on myself tonight," she mumbled. "_I mean, sure, it started off innocently enough,_" she continued in her head, "_but when I saw her watching me… I couldn't help myself. I had to dance for her. And obviously it worked, it got her to finally get to that 'I love you' place in her head, but now…_"

Placing her left hand out to the side, she picked up the pillow Bianca usually slept with, placed it on her face, and screamed into it with all her might. After the screaming was done, she just left the pillow there, breathing in the scent of the woman she loved.

August 21st – 3:30 AM

Bianca laid in bed, staring at the ceiling in the darkness of her room. She was too wired to sleep, but too sleepy to do anything else, so she laid there, pondering her evening.

"_I think I could have watched her all night… actually, I know I could have. I don't think I've ever seen her be quite that overtly sexual… was it for me? Was she trying to woo me? Does it even matter? It obviously worked!"_

Placing her right hand out to the side, she picked up the pillow Maggie usually slept with, placed it on her face, and screamed into it with all her might. After the screaming was done, she just left the pillow there, breathing in the scent of the woman she loved.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

August 22nd – 8:30 AM

Patrick was finding it difficult to contain his smile as he rode in the elevator up to the penthouse. He was expecting to find two very content and smiley women in the early stages of young romance when he arrived. He sighed contentedly as the doors to the elevator opened, but not on a scene he expected.

Bianca was standing in the doorway, Miranda on her right hip. She was tapping her left foot with great impatience as she finally took notice of him. "Here!" she said as she thrust her briefcase at him. She barely turned her head around as she yelled, "I'm leaving now!" and slammed the door.

The taller gentleman gulped loudly as they rode down in the elevator in silence. Miranda looked up at him with a look in her eye almost as if to say, "shhh Stay quiet! It's your only defense!"

The drive to the Cambias building was awkward that day as Bianca sat in the back of the limo, staring out the window, her jaw set in an angry defiance of an unseen force. Miranda sat in her car seat next to her mother, silent as could be, turning a doll over and over again in her lap. Patrick did not speak, only stealing the occasional glance in the rear view mirror.

Bianca continued staring out the window, oblivious to Patrick's concern. Her mind was elsewhere… the morning before…

August 21st – 10:00 AM

Bianca shuffled into the kitchen in her black, silk robe, her hair pulled back in a banana clip, Miranda walking beside her, holding onto her hand. "Okay Munchkin, come on, let's see if we can find Auntie Maggie, okay?"

"Kay!" the little girl responded, running from her mother to the far side of the kitchen. She slapped her little hands on the door to Maggie's room. "Maggie! Maggie! Wakes up!"

Bianca giggled and walked over to the coffee pot, preparing to give herself a caffeine jolt. Their night of clubbing had certainly taken a toll on her, both mentally and physically, and coffee seemed her only true friend at this moment. As she reached for the grinder, she spotted a piece of paper.

**B – **

**Got a phone call, made a mistake with my paper, not as done as I thought. I'm at the library, no idea when I'll be back.**

**So sorry… really sorry, please don't be mad!**

**I love you (wow… I said it!)**

**M**

Bianca was disappointed, but understanding. If her paper wasn't done, it wasn't done. She sighed andS folded the note up before slipping it in her pocket. She turned to her daughter as she grabbed the coffee beans. "Sorry Munchkin, it looks like she had to go to the library for awhile."

Miranda pouted. "'anna see Maggie!"

"You and I both, baby girl… you and I both."

August 21st – 6:00 PM

Bianca's mobile rang with the tone that meant it was Maggie. "Hey you! You almost home?"

There was a pause for a beat on the other end and then a sour sounding, "No."

"Okay… what's up?" Bianca asked hesitantly.

"It would seem your brilliant girlfriend wrote the wrong paper."

"What?"

"I wrote the next paper, not the current one, but the next one."

"Um… you can view it as being ahead?"

"Not funny, Bianca… I have to go, I just wanted to let you know I wouldn't be home for dinner, I'll grab something here."

"Okay, I guess I'll see you when I see you."

"Yeah… love you," and she hung up.

Bianca heard the click, but sat there for a moment longer, the phone pressed to her ear. "Love you too."

August 22nd – 7:00 AM

Bianca shuffled into the kitchen in her black, silk robe, her hair pulled back in a banana clip, Miranda walking beside her, holding onto her hand. Where as the day before she had sent Miranda ahead, she held on to her this time. There had been no call from Maggie since the evening before, she wasn't even sure she had come home, to be honest. She had stayed up as late as she could, but not a sound was heard.

Bianca went over to the door, pressing her ear against it; nothing could be heard coming from Maggie's room, and if she was sleeping, she didn't want to wake her. She sighed, placed Miranda in her booster seat at the table and went to make coffee.

About ten minutes later she heard the elevator ding, and that told her all she needed to know about where Maggie had been all night; the library. She heard the lock to her girlfriend's private door open up, followed by a slamming door and text books crashing to the floor. She walked over to the shared kitchen door to knock, but when she heard the shower start up, she opted to leave her alone.

August 22nd – 8:15AM

Bianca had quickly run upstairs with Miranda, thrown on their clothes for the work day, and come back to the kitchen, expecting Maggie to be in there eating her breakfast. Not a sign of her could be found.

She sat Miranda down at the table, and went over to Maggie's door, determined to learn what was going on because she was concerned. As she made to knock on the door, the door flew open, Maggie racing past her to the refrigerator.

As Maggie dug in the fridge for a quick bite to eat, Bianca tried to get her attention by making little coughs. It didn't seem to have any discernable effect. Finally, she spoke up. "Maggie?"

"Yeah?" came the muffled reply.

"Is everything okay?"

"Oh, just hunky-dory, but what do you expect when you discover you have a paper worth twenty percent of your grade due in twenty-four hours, and it wasn't the one you thought it was?" She spun around, closing the fridge door with her hip as she walked towards her room again with some leftovers and a jug of orange juice.

"Well, I'm sure you'll…"

Maggie stopped and glared at her through squinted eye-lids. "Now is not the time for platitudes, Bianca. I'm just a bit freakin' stressed out if you couldn't tell."

Bianca's expression quickly soured. "Well, please forgive me for giving a damned then. I'll make sure not to do it again," she retorted as she walked towards Miranda to pick her up.

The shorter girl's expression softened. "Bianca… wait, I'm sorry, that came out wrong…"

"Oh no, it came out just right, I think. You're pissed at yourself, but it's better to be short with me about it. I'm surprised you could take time out of your busy schedule to give me two sentences." The buzzer went off signaling Patrick was on his way up. She snatched Miranda up and headed towards the front door.

"Bianca, please give me just a second…"

"No, please, go back to your paper, don't concern yourself with Miranda and I wanting to know where you were all night, or if you were okay, seriously, go back to the paper," she said as she stormed off towards the front hall.

Maggie stood in the kitchen for a moment, finally hanging her head in defeat. "I suck at relationships," she mumbled, and shuffled off towards her room. Just as she got to the door, she heard Bianca bellow something about leaving, and then the door slamming shut. "Yeah… I REALLY suck at relationships."

August 22nd – 8:45 AM

The limo descended into the depths of the Cambias underground parking garage, the sudden change in lighting shook Bianca back to the present moment. Patrick pulled up to the usual spot near the elevators, hopping out of the car to open the door for the young executive and her daughter.

As she stepped out, Patrick gave her a small, but comforting smile that somehow conveyed every feeling it needed to. She returned it, as if to say 'thank you'. They once again rode in silence in yet another elevator, both lost in their thoughts. Nothing was said until they approached Bianca's office, Aurélia quickly approaching to scoop up little Miranda. "Patrick… could you…" she quickly grabbed a piece of her stationary and scribbled something on it, folded it twice, and held it towards Patrick, "could you take that to Maggie when you go back to pick her up for class?"

Patrick gave her a smirk as he took the note and tucked it in his inside jacket pocket. "We are now reduced to passing notes like grade school children? Does it have a box for her to check if she likes you or not?"

Bianca finally gave a soft chuckle. "Just take it to her you pain in the butt… God, how does Guilia put up with you?"

"The patience of Saints Ms. Montgomery, the patience of Saints."

August 22nd – 11:25 AM

Patrick got out of the limo with his newspaper, and took his usual position resting against the hood as he waited for Maggie to come out of class. She had called him as he left Cambias a few hours ago to say she couldn't wait for him, and had taken a taxi to class; he was appalled.

He scanned the newspaper for anything of interest, but there was nothing, so he settled for the gossip pages, positive there would be something from Guy. Sure enough, they were still playing up the pictures of the girl's night out on Saturday. Where on Sunday it had been all about their outfits, today it more about how they walked out hand-in-hand, sweaty, and looking "ravenous" for one another.

He had to agree, they had looked 'ravenous' for one another, which made this morning all that much odder. He was dying to find out what the problem was this morning, but was hesitant to ask. Now that he was in the know to the content of the note, and the accompanying plan that Bianca had filled him in on, it didn't seem as important any more.

A pen hit his newspaper, making the middle bounce up towards his face. "Snuck up on ya, didn't I?" asked the petite blonde as she took up her usual spot next to him.

"Not really, I knew where you were at all times, I just decided to let you have your fun."

"Sure you did, Frenchie, sure you did. I was stealthy, like a ninja," she said as she made a little karate chop move with her right hand.

Patrick chuckled. "Is that what you call it when you stumbled over your right foot as you came out of the door? Then you had to catch yourself by crossing your left arm in front of your chest, grabbing onto the door so you wouldn't fall?"

Maggie stared at him. "Damned… you really were aware."

"Always," he said as he folded his paper, tucking it under his arm. He reached into his coat pocket with his right hand and fished out Bianca's note. "I have a message for you from Bianca. I was supposed to give it to you before class, but you took the cab."

Maggie tensed as she took the note, unsure of what Bianca would have to say since they parted on such a sour note mere hours before. She tentatively opened the note, a smile quickly creeping across her face.

**M –**

**Dinner, tonight, 6:30, dining room, FORMAL!**

**I love you**

**B**

"Patrick, could you and…"

"Already done."

Maggie couldn't resist a dig. "Really?"

"Of course, it's all arranged."

"Wow… I have no clue how you knew I was going to ask if you and the Pope were going to be able to dance down the Champs-Elysées in tutu's," she turned and patted him on his right shoulder with a grin.

He stared at her blankly. "I hate you."

"I know you do, sweetie, I know."

Another time, another place

thumpa-thumpa- thumpa-thumpa- thumpa-thumpa- thumpa-thumpa

The beat of the club resonated strongly in Bianca's head; she could feel it in her teeth. All five of her senses were being attacked; the smell of sweat, intermingled with sex… the sound of the never ending sonic onslaught… the sight of the flashing strobe lights… the taste of a fine champagne as it glided across her tongue… the feeling of a cool champagne flute against the tips of her fingers. She was drunk on sensations as well as alcohol.

She turned her attention to the dance floor, having to squint to see through the mixture of fog, bodies, and lights, her eyes taking time to adjust. She could make out a lone figure in fine detail dancing there, moving in perfect synchronization to the beat. It was female in shape, the curves familiar, the outfit sexy. A mini-skirt… off the shoulder shirt… over-the-knee boots, she wanted to drink in every inch of this girl's form.

Starting at the feet, she worked her way up, over the boots… the bare thighs… the swaying hips… up the torso… over the bare shoulders…to the glisteningly familiar face of Maggie Stone. Her eyes were closed, the corners of her mouth upturned slightly in a private smile, it was obvious she felt a freedom out there in the mass of gyrating bodies.

That was when Bianca saw it; her eye zeroed in on a lone bead of sweat, ever so slowly trickling down Maggie's temple. As if the world had gone into slow motion, she watched its journey across her girlfriend's face. It was mesmerizing as it traced the lines of her features, moving so slowly, seductively down the curve of her cheek… along her jawbone… finally dripping from the end of her chin, down into the billowing edge of her top, landing on her cleavage…

Bianca gasped, her jaw slackening some, as the song began to change…

"Estonia… in the third quarter…"

"_What an odd song…_" she thought "_who sings about Estonia in… aw crap…_"

August 22nd – 12:42 PM

Bianca shook herself back to reality, coming out of her daydream of her girlfriend dancing, once again, only for her.

"And in the fourth quarter, the projections show the office in Sweden…"

"_Josef is such a nice man…_" Bianca thought "_so why do I hate him so? Ah yes… the monotone, sleep-inducing, voice, that's it. Oh well… at least it leads to thoughts of Maggie…_"

She began to slip back into her daydream as the financial officer droned on about the various Cambias offices and how they would be doing in the upcoming year.

"… should be in the black by the end of the financial year."

"_That mini-skirt… holy hell, that mini skirt… with that tract of bare skin between the top of her boots, and the bottom hem of that skirt…_"

August 22nd – 12:42 PM

"… _and the way her eyes played over my thighs… god I couldn't get enough of her eyes looking at me… piercing me… she looked so regal sitting up there, holding that champagne flute up, staring over the rim at me… it was like she was dissecting me, studying me… drinking in every inch of me… I…"_

The girl with the dark, pixie cut hair to Maggie's left poked her with a pen in the side, jostling her out of her daydream. She jumped slightly, and then blushed as the girl giggled at her. "Thanks," she mumbled.

"No problem," the girl replied in a thick French accent.

Maggie looked around; everyone seemed to be lost in their own heads, the professor boring them all to tears. She couldn't take more of this; she quietly slid out of her chair and stepped out into the hall, pulling out her mobile phone as she did.

August 22nd – 12:45 PM

Bianca's private line rang, the caller ID showed it was Maggie, causing her to grin. "Josef, I'm sorry, but could you step out for a moment? I need to take this call."

The older gentleman looked up from his files, gave a dismissive huff, and walked out to the waiting area as Bianca picked up the receiver. "Hey there… did you get my note?"

"Hey yourself… yeah, that's why I was calling. Formal? In our own dining room?"

Bianca grinned. "Yep… I like my ladies to be all spiffy looking when I wine and dine 'em."

There was silence on the end of the phone.

"Um… hello?"

"I'm here… I'm just trying to wrap my head around, first of all, your 'ladies', and secondly, you used 'spiffy'."

"Get used to it," Bianca said while giggling.

"So… look, about this morning…"

"I owe you an apology, Maggie. Can we just leave it at that?"

"Well, I was kind of short…"

"You're always short."

"Hey! I'm trying to apologize too, you know!"

"And that's me trying to tell you that you don't owe me one."

"But calling me short? That's kinda low!"

"Yeah… I have to go low… so you can reach it!"

"I am so breaking up with you… after the fancy dinner of course."

"I wouldn't expect anything less."

"Okay, I have to sneak back into class now, I was just thinking of you and I needed to call and talk to you."

Bianca almost swooned, but held it together. "Funny… I was just thinking of you too."

"Well, I am kind of hard to ignore," she said in such a way that you could almost hear the grin.

Bianca rolled her eyes. "So true. Okay… I love you."

There was a pause, and then an almost whispered-while-giggling response, "I love you, too," followed by a sigh, and a click signaling the call was at an end.

Bianca smiled warmly as she placed the handset back in its cradle. She stared at the phone for a moment, lost in private thoughts, before she reached for the ringing intercom. "Yes, Aurélia?"

"Sorry for the interruption, but I saw the light go off on your private line. May I send Josef back in now, ma'am?"

"Oh yes, I'm sorry, please do."

There was a slight pause before the door opened and Aurélia ushered Josef in. After he passed by her, the assistant shot Bianca a look, and then threw her head back like she had fallen asleep. Bianca tried to hide her laugh, but she wasn't successful.

August 22nd – 5:30 PM

Patrick had taken Bianca home early, for once, and was under strict orders to not only bring Maggie home no sooner than 5:30, but also to make sure she used her private door when she arrived. Neither feat was easy, but he had pulled it off.

"You know, you can go now," the petite blonde said as she unlocked her door.

"Not until I see you walk in there and close that door. Even after that, I'm supposed to stand in the hallway and make sure you don't sneak out."

"Yeesh, it's like no one around here trusts me!"

Patrick stared at her blankly. "You just figured that out?"

"Yeah, yeah," Maggie got her door open and turned to face Patrick. "So you're taking Miranda home, right?"

"That was taken care of hours ago. Do you really think Guilia would pass up a chance to spend time with her?"

Maggie laughed. "True… okay then, well… I guess I'll see you in the morning then. Thanks, Patrick."

"For what?"

"For just always being there for us… I know this hasn't been easy for you."

"Helping two women in love? Oh… the horrors. Go get changed, and have fun tonight."

"Okay, okay… night, Frenchie," she said as she closed the door.

August 22nd – 6:30 PM

"BIANCA! I'M HUNGRY! LET ME OUT!" Maggie shouted as she pulled on the door that led into the kitchen. Apparently Bianca didn't trust her girlfriend and had locked the door so she couldn't 'accidentally' show up early for their dinner date.

The door lock clicked, and Bianca opened the door. "Okay, it's 6:30, you can come out now."

"Gee… thanks."

Bianca gave her outfit a quick once over as she passed by. It was a knee length Betsey Johnson dress, layered at the bottom, almost like the petals of a flower. Her hair was pulled up in a bun, spaghetti straps at the top of the dress, a wide black belt in the middle, black stocking's, and matching red heels completed the stunner of an outfit. "Wow," she said, "when I said formal, you really listened."

Maggie blushed and whispered a polite, "Thank you," as she did a little spin to show off all angles of her dress. She came to a stop so she could see Bianca's strapless, knee length Donna Karan dress, finished off with black stockings and three inch stiletto heels. "Wow… you look pretty smashing yourself."

Now it was Bianca's turn to blush. Regaining her composure, she gestured towards the dining room. "Shall we?"

"Of course!" As they entered the dining room, Maggie could see the table was covered in silver domed plates of varying sizes. "Wow… did you have someone cater this?"

"Yes… remember Patrick's friend with the restaurant we ate out on the roof?"

"How could I forget? It took me months to pay that off."

Bianca laughed. "True… so, yes, I got them to cater all of this for us." Bianca walked over to where Maggie usually sat, confusing Maggie, until she saw Bianca pull out her chair for her. She blushed slightly, but took the offered seat anyway.

Bianca walked around the table to sit directly across from her. Once settled in, she removed the lids from their oyster appetizers. "I just got us iced tea to drink tonight, I hope you don't mind."

Maggie scrunched up her face slightly, confused by the proclamation. "Why did you do that? This spread seems to scream out for wine."

"I know, but… well… we always seem to get into trouble lately with alcohol, and with the way this morning went, it just seemed the more sensible thing to do."

"Ah… yeah, you're right. Well then… pass me some iced tea please!" She held out her glass and Bianca quickly filled it for her. "Why are we dining here by the way? Why not just go to the restaurant?"

"No Guy Kachel… no outside pressures… just you and me, and that's how I wanted it for once."

"I couldn't agree more," Maggie replied with a smile.

August 22nd – 7:30 PM

The appetizers gone, the salads completed, the delicious duck l'orange devoured, they were just slowly digging away at their chocolate mousse desserts. They had exhausted all the normal dinner chit chat about how their days had been, what they had accomplished out in the real world, but with dinner winding down, now they seemed reduced to nervous glances and giggles. They would look down at their mousse, take a quick look at the other one without lifting their head, and then, when caught, look back as fast as possible.

Maggie finally cleared her throat and shifted in her chair slightly. "So… when I called you today, you said you had been thinking about me. Care to share what it was exactly?"

Bianca blushed and giggled slightly as she twisted her spoon in the mousse. "Well… I was… um thinking about you from the other night actually… when you were dancing."

It was Maggie's turn to blush. "Yeah, I kinda got into it, didn't I?"

"Just a tad… not that I'm complaining mind you! It was just a bit… distracting today at work is all."

There was a moment of silence again as Maggie looked down into her sinfully good dessert, moving it around with her spoon. "Well… I was thinking similar thoughts today. Even though you weren't out on the dance floor all the time, you looked pretty damned hot sitting up there watching me."

Bianca gulped. "I didn't know you were even paying attention."

Maggie looked up to stare at her girlfriend directly. "How could I not? You were dead center to the dance floor, watching me the entire time… you looked almost regal… and… and I'd be lying if I said all the dancing was just for me, a goodly amount of it was because I knew you were watching."

Bianca looked up and stared at Maggie for a long moment, their eyes locked, neither saying anything to the other. Maggie lifted a spoonful of the chocolaty desert to her lips without looking. She put the spoon in her mouth and pulled it out ever so slowly, scraping the mass of desert off with her lips as she did. After swallowing that, she placed the spoon back in her mouth, twisting it every direction imaginable. When it finally reemerged, it was as shiny as if it had just been washed.

Bianca gulped. Maggie smiled mischievously.

"You know…" Maggie said as she looked down at her desert again, "I think that iced tea was a pretty good idea."

Bianca's throat was suddenly very dry. "Why's that?" she asked hesitantly.

"Well… alcohol does always seem to get in our way doesn't it?"

"Ye… yeah."

"And we certainly can't say that adrenaline is a problem tonight."

"Maybe not for you…"

Maggie smirked. "You know what I mean."

"I think at this point, Maggie, I don't want to jump to any conclusions about anything involving us. Especially not after what happened this morning."

Maggie smiled softly. "Yeah, I hear ya. I guess… I guess I'm just saying…" she looked up into Bianca's eyes, her right hand holding the now still spoon in her dessert, "that… I wouldn't be opposed to… you're going to make me say this aren't you?"

"I know it sucks, but I think it's for the best."

Maggie stared at Bianca for a long moment, studying the taller girl's eyes, searching them for a sign if they were indeed, at long last, on the same page. It seemed they were. "I wouldn't be opposed to us making love tonight." She immediately blushed and looked down again.

Bianca reached across the table, placing her right hand on top of Maggie's left. The touch was electric, the sensation speeding through the both of them, their eyes closing as they gulped in unison. "I can't say I would exactly be opposed either," Bianca said as she opened her eyes, "but, are you sure about this? This is the last huge step for us."

"I know… and I get that, but I've really been ready for this… for us… for weeks, but one thing after another has gotten in our way. My stupidity on the couch… too much wine… work… you name it, it's gone wrong. And tonight, Patrick and Guilia have Miranda, we're sober, I'm done with homework, I hope you have nothing you have to do…"

Bianca cocked an eyebrow and grinned a devilish grin.

Maggie blushed. "Okay… poor choice of words… but you get what I mean."

"I do… and this wasn't my intention for tonight, I promise, I just wanted to make up for this morning."

"I know that, but, really, don't you think our putting this off again and again is part of what led to the problems this morning?"

Bianca thought for a moment, finally retracting her hand as she did. "Yeah… I think you're probably right… we're both sexually frustrated."

"That's an understatement," Maggie said with a laugh.

"Yeah… okay, well… how about we clear these dishes and then we just see where the night leads?"

"That sounds like a wonderful plan to me, and if it doesn't feel right, it doesn't feel right."

"Agreed," Bianca said as she stood up and started picking up plates to carry into the kitchen.

Maggie followed her lead and did the same, trailing Bianca into the kitchen, a few feet behind her. Bianca got to the sink before her, placed the dishes in to be rinsed off after they had all been collected, and turned to return to the dining room.

This brought her nearly face-to-face with Maggie. She looked down at her shorter companion, who was looking up into her eyes, each hand carrying plates, this made Bianca stand in-between the shorter girl's out stretched arms. They stared at each other for a long moment, until finally, and without warning, Maggie dropped both handfuls of plates.

They crashed to the floor, breaking into dozens of shards and skittering across the floor. Neither woman cared as they quickly found their arms wrapped around each other, their lips entangled in an embrace of unbridled passion that had been years in the making.

Their hands shifted positions rapidly, running all over each others backs; their kisses were rapid and passionate, their heads changing position often. Bianca spun Maggie so her back was to the cabinets and she pressed her into them, their feet crunching plate shards as she did.

Her kisses moved away from Maggie's lips, moved along her jawbone, down on to her neck, along her shoulders…

"Bianca?"

Bianca froze. They had been here before; she dreaded what was to come next. "What?" she asked, her lips still pressed against Maggie's shoulder.

"Can we just forget the dishes and get to my bedroom?"

Bianca closed her eyes, but this time it was in happiness. "Absolutely," she said as she lifted her head and smiled, looking down at her girlfriend, who returned the look.

"Worried, weren't ya?" she asked with her lopsided grin.

"Oh no, of course not!" Bianca replied with a roll of her eyes.

Maggie laughed, grabbed Bianca's left hand with her right, and walked quickly across the kitchen to her bedroom door. She opened it, they dashed through, and she closed the door behind her, shutting out the outside world well into the next morning.


	9. Chapter 9

Act II: Cruising in the clear skies

Chapter 9 - Prelude

August 23rd – 8:15 AM

"_Finally…"_

It wasn't so much that sex was that important to Bianca, but after five years of glances, touches, blushes, highs, lows, expectations, disappointments, near-misses, differences, turmoils, comas, kidnappings, rapes, murders, births, baby snatchings, awkward moments, heavy sighs, and paintings named Portia, it was nice to finally be in bed laying in the arms of the woman she loved… as lovers. Not as best friends, not even as girlfriends, but full-blown, no-questioning, lovers.

They lay there, facing each other, a thin sheet protecting their naked bodies from the coolness of the air-conditioned air. A bare calf stuck out here or there, but otherwise anyone could have walked in the room and not been embarrassed. Not that these women cared what anyone thought at this moment. They were too enthralled in their own post-sexual relations after-glow to care what anyone in the world would make of them, no matter what their state of dress.

Bianca was laying on her right side, smiling as she stared at Maggie's lips. She was obsessed with them it seemed, not being able to take her eyes away from them. She studied their contours, the thin, vertical lines that ran between the two separate halves that made up the whole. The taller girl's own mouth was drawn into a very thin, satisfied smile.

Maggie laid on her left side, her own eyes focusing on Bianca's forehead, her right hand brushing wisps of hair from her new lover's face.

"How do you feel?" Bianca asked, her voice dry and cracking with nerves as well as a long night.

"Probably the happiest I've ever felt," Maggie replied, still playing with the tiny, misplaced hairs.

"But… you're sure you're okay with this?"

Maggie closed her eyes, her smile broadening. When her eyes re-opened, they were now locked with Bianca's. "Bianca… you don't have to keep asking me this, okay?"

"I know, but…"

Maggie leaned forward, planting a light kiss on Bianca's lips to silence her. She pulled back and smiled at the now goofy-smiling Bianca. "Look, you asked me last night after the first time… and after the second time… and the third time this morning… I'm fine. This is where I want to be… right here… with you… in your arms…"

"Alright… I believe you; I just want to make sure, you know?"

"I know, and I appreciate it, I really do."

The women returned to their silent stares, neither seemingly able to drink enough of the other one's visage in to satisfy their hunger for one another. Several minutes passed before Bianca finally spoke again. "We have to get up at some point, you know… it has to be getting late."

"No, we don't."

"We do! I have a meeting today I have to be at and you have class."

"I know I do… I'm classy!"

Bianca rolled her eyes before staring into Maggie's once again. "Really? How do you explain that one thing you did last night? Classy ladies typically don't know how to do that."

Maggie furrowed her brow. "We did several things, Bianca… which one do you mean?"

Bianca blushed. "You know the one I mean! The one that made me let out a stream of swear words?"

Maggie smirked. "Oh… THAT one thing. I… um… grew up with Frankie?"

"Okay, if your sister taught you that, that's just mildly disturbing, and icky!"

Maggie laughed. "Okay… maybe no one taught it to me, it just felt… right. Ya know?"

"Oh, it felt right for sure," Bianca said with a big grin as she pulled Maggie closer to her across the sheets. They stared at each other for a moment before closing their eyes and kissing once again.

In the kitchen, the intercom sounded the arrival of Patrick.

The girl's eyes snapped open. "What time is it?" Bianca asked hurriedly.

Maggie rolled over, her alarm clock not in sight, she looked around. She finally found it under the bed, the time on it blinking. "Oh crap! We knocked it off the nightstand last night!" She reached for her mobile phone, flipped it open, and her jaw dropped. "Oh my god… its 8:25!"

This news sent both women scrambling out of bed, Maggie throwing on a robe and quickly fetching a second one from her dresser for Bianca. "We are so late!" Bianca chided.

"I know!" Maggie responded as she threw the door to the kitchen open. She ran into the room, but quickly skidded to a stop. "CRAP!" she exclaimed.

"What is it?" Bianca asked.

"We forgot about the dishes! There are still broken plates everywhere!"

The elevator dinged out in the hallway, signaling Patrick had come on up. Bianca and Maggie shot each other a look. "Oh, this is so not going to be fun," said the shorter girl.

"You clean this up; I'll distract him in the hallway!" Bianca made a wide circle around the broken plates, being careful as her feet were bare. She ran through the dining room, the table still covered in the remains of last night's repast. She made it to the door just as Patrick knocked.

Flinging the door open with her right hand, she tried pulling her hair tight with her left so as to conceal the dreaded 'bed head'. "Patrick! I am so sorry, we're running late today."

He cocked an eyebrow at her. "I can see that," he said as he stepped in, walking past her.

Bianca quickly slammed the door and tried to get around him to block his view of the dining room and the plates still piled on the table there. "So…" she said, obviously stalling for time, "where's Miranda?"

Patrick furrowed his brow now. "As we discussed yesterday, she's at Cambias with Guilia until you arrive."

"Oh, that's right!" she said, making a big show of smacking her forehead with her palm. "Silly me!"

"Yes… silly you," he said, his one eyebrow, once again, rising in a questioning fashion.

"Well… okay, why don't you head back down to the car and I'll finish getting ready…" Bianca said as she took Patrick by the arm and tried to lead him back to the front door. He was reluctant at first, trying to lean back and look in the dining room.

Just as they reached the door, there was the sound of plate pieces crashing into the trash. Patrick ripped his arm away from Bianca's hand and spun to investigate the sound.

"Patrick! Wait, I…"

It was too late, Patrick had made it to the dining room, and by the time Bianca got to the doorway, Patrick was halfway into the room, but had stopped dead in his tracks.

Maggie stood in the kitchen doorway, dustpan in one hand, broom in the other. Patrick looked form her… to the table… back to her... and then turned to look at the blushing Bianca. "I… um… I think… yes… yes, I'll just go wait… down in the car… for you… no hurry…" Patrick said as he turned and started to walk past Bianca, back into the hallway.

He left without saying another word… the two girls broke into fits of hysterical laughter.

August 23rd – 8:53 AM

Bianca had gotten ready in record time for work. She was putting on her suit jacket as she made the turn off of the stairs, crossed the living room and headed to the entrance hallway. She spotted Maggie leaning against the dining room doorway, arms crossed in front of her, head leaning against the framework. Her eyes were closed and her smile was wistful. "Hey… how goes the clean up?"

Maggie's eyes popped open and it seemed they took a second to focus, returning from where ever she had drifted off to in her head. "Huh? Oh yeah… all done. I already started the dishwasher and everything."

"Great… are you going to get ready for class now?" Bianca asked as she walked up to Maggie to stand in front of her.

"Only if I really have to," the shorter girl responded with a grin on her face.

"Well, I have to go to work, class is all up to…" she saw the look on Maggie's face, and knew what it meant "Stop right there! We already had this conversation!"

"I know… in bed… where I would still like to be," Maggie bit her lower lip, grabbed Bianca's lapels, and pulled her closer to her own body.

"Maggie…" Bianca sucked in a sharp, deep breath "don't…" her eyes closed; the look on her face was one of temptation and regret.

"Why not?" Maggie said, whispering in Bianca's ear.

"Because… you are a foul and evil temptress…" her head lowered, a soft moan escaping her lips as Maggie blew hot breath on her left ear "and… I… oh god…" It took all her willpower to shove Maggie away from her. "And I have to go to work… and you have to go to school."

"Party pooper," Maggie admonished.

Bianca stepped away, putting in her earrings, "I know, but look at it this way, from here on out, it's all smooth sailing!"

The shorter girl rolled her eyes skyward in exasperation. "Oh, good job Bianca, just ask the world to kick us, why don't ya?"

"Oh, you know what I mean!" the taller girl said, turning back to her new lover. "We've gotten past all the big hurdles, there's nothing standing in our way anymore."

"I still say that you're just asking for the universe to smack us in the face," her expression one of nervousness.

"Oh shush," Bianca said with a laugh. She turned to face Maggie, and it was her turn to pull her closer. "Now… give me a kiss so I can head to work and you can get ready for class."

Maggie didn't fight the pull, or the suggestion, leaning in and kissing her newly minted lover fully on the lips. Neither wanted to pull away and kept the kissing going for several minutes.

"I… have to go…" Bianca finally said between kisses.

"Mmhmm," was Maggie's only reply as she continued to kiss her.

"STOP IT!" Bianca said laughing and pushing her girlfriend back. "Away, you demon!"

"Awwww, is that my first couple nickname?"

"Oh, good God… I am so breaking up with you."

"Mmhmm, sure you are," Maggie replied as she maintained her hold on Bianca, not letting her leave.

"Let me go," she whispered.

"Not until you promise me you'll be home for dinner."

"I promise… that I'll try!"

Maggie lowered her head and stared at her. "Bianca… promise me."

"I promise I'll try… if I don't get to this meeting though, it'll run late and I won't make it for sure!"

"Okay, okay… go." She gave her one last quick peck on the lips and Bianca rushed out to finally get a start on her much delayed day.

Maggie stood in the hallway for another moment, a contented smile on her lips. "What was I thinking these past five years?" she mumbled to herself. "If I had any clue how happy she could make me, I wouldn't have freaked out that night at the Valley Inn with the champagne. Yikes… I was such a dumbass."

She shook her head, and marched off to her room to get changed for the day, humming a happy tune as she went.

August 23rd – 11:30 AM

"_This… is… the… longest… day… in… history…_" Bianca thought to herself. "_I could care less what's happening with the Luxemburg office… I didn't even know we have a Luxemburg office!_"

Her day was not going well at all. Her thoughts constantly kept drifting off to the previous night… the gasps… the declarations of love… the moans… the kisses… the biting of lower lips…

"Ms. Montgomery? Your thoughts?"

"Oh…" Bianca straightened up in her leather back chair in the conference room, trying to wipe the silly grin off her face to no avail. "Well, Josef, your recommendations have always been sound in the past, I don't see any reason why we shouldn't go with them."

Josef smiled smugly, while the rest of the conference room glared. "_Crap,_" thought Bianca, "_why do I get the sinking feeling my daydreaming just cost us a buttload of money?_"

August 23rd – 11:30 AM

"Ms. Stone… is there something immensely amusing to you about the respiratory system?"

Maggie shook her head, unsure of why she was being called by last name. "Um… no, sir."

"Well, you've been staring blankly out the window with an enormous grin for the past half hour; I thought you just might want to share an amusing anecdote with all of us."

Maggie lowered her head, wishing to disappear under her seat. "No, sir. Everything is just a-ok back here… sorry about that."

"Very well then…" the professor started to drone on again about lungs, and Maggie quickly slid back into her dream state. Her mind taking a virtual tour again of the hills and valleys that made up Bianca Montgomery's uncovered body. The way her calf muscles made her skin ripple… the perfect, round smoothness of her hip… her amazingly flat stomach… the curve of her…

"MS. STONE!"

Maggie jumped in her seat that time.

August 23rd – 6:43 PM

Bianca came barreling through the door of the penthouse at top speed. "I'M LATE! I KNOW! LET ME GO CHANGE!"

Maggie stood in the doorway of the dining room, watching her girlfriend run by in a blur of Armani pinstripes. Patrick walked in slowly, pushing Miranda in her stroller. Maggie quickly knelt down and unfastened her restraints. "Aw, honey, I haven't seen you since yesterday! How are you?"

Miranda squealed at the sight of Maggie, stretching out her arms. "I good… I GOOD!"

"You're always good, angel cheeks!" said Maggie as she placed a kiss on each of Miranda's cheeks before propping the little girl on her jutted out right hip. She looked at Patrick, who still had not made eye-contact with her all day. "Hey, Patrick."

Patrick grunted as he placed Miranda's baby bag against the wall.

Maggie stared at him for a long moment. "Patrick… you knew it would happen eventually," she stated bluntly.

He closed his eyes as he stood back up from placing all of Miranda's things on the floor. "I know, I…" he never quite finished his sentence.

"What? Come on Patrick, you know we can talk about anything… what's bothering you? You didn't say a word to me all day, now's not the time to remain all clammed up."

"I guess…" he turned to face Maggie now, finally looking at her directly for the first time since that awkward moment in the morning. "I guess it was like a father walking in on his child having sex?"

Maggie blushed and she made a face that could only be described as 'awww'. "Aw, Patrick!" She walked over and gave him a one-armed hug with her left and then stood on her tip-toes to place a kiss on his cheek. Once done, she gave him another squeeze with her arm and started talking as she came to once again be flat-footed on the floor. "You know we think of you like a father, and yes, this morning was awkward, but… it happened, don't sweat it."

"I know… and it's not like I didn't expect that to happen last night between you two, but staring it fully in the face was another matter all-together."

"I understand… and don't worry about it, okay?"

"Worry about what?" came Bianca's voice from the direction of the living room. She was out of breath, but changed into lounging clothes, and was pulling her hair up in a ponytail.

Maggie looked back over her shoulder. "It seems that Mr. Softy here was embarrassed by what he walked in on this morning."

Bianca smiled as she finished snapping the hair band into place. "Patrick! There's nothing to be embarrassed about! You just saw us cleaning up, is all."

"I know, but like I told Maggie just now, it's like learning your children are having sex. Even though you know it's happening, you never want the proof."

Bianca laughed. "Well, the only proof you got was that we're messy eaters." She walked up to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you and Guilia for watching Miranda last night… you both must come to dinner sometime soon for us to make up for all this babysitting!"

Patrick rolled his eyes to the sky. "You have no idea how much she enjoys it… I fear it makes her want to have another one. The two we had were more than enough for anyone, thank you."

"Someday I need to meet your daughters, they sound like they would be right up my alley," Maggie said with a wink.

Patrick was ashen faced. "I would fear for the safety of this country."

Everyone shared a laugh as Patrick was escorted out with many wishes for a good weekend and kisses on the cheek, even from Miranda.

"Sorry I was late," Bianca said as they sauntered towards the dining room.

"No biggie, I figured you would be. We did get a late start today, after all."

"Yeah… and it was a bit hard to concentrate at work today."

"And at school," Maggie added.

The two women stopped as they entered the dining room, turning their heads to look at each other. "You too?" Maggie asked.

Bianca smiled broadly, pleased to know she was not alone in the land of day dreams that afternoon. "Yeah… you made it a bit hard to concentrate today."

"Well… I guess you'll just have to punish me," Maggie said, her tone wicked and mischievous.

Bianca laughed and then stared into Maggie's eyes, her tone returning to serious. "I love you."

"And I love you," Maggie said. They stood there, staring at one another for a moment until Maggie felt Miranda wiggling against her body to be let go. She turned her attention to Miranda, smiled and put her down on the floor. "You go play for a minute, okay? Your mommy and I need to talk."

"'Kay!" Miranda exclaimed, and scurried off to her playhouse. Her comprehension of the words may have been loose, but the intent had been clear enough for her young mind.

Maggie stood back up to her full height and stared at Bianca again for a moment. It was a deep, penetrating stare and a bit unsettling for Bianca.

"What? What are you looking at?"

"You."

"Well, I know that, but why are you looking so hard?"

"I'm trying to convince myself this is all really happening… that, not only did I finally start dating you, but that we are an actual, real couple now."

Bianca tilted her head to one side and smiled. "It's real alright; you and I are an actual, honest-to-goodness couple."

"Egads… what was I thinking?"

"That you love me?" Bianca asked with a pout of her lower lip.

"Oh yeah, that was it… good call," she said with a smirk. "But…"

"But what?"

"Where do we go from here?"

Bianca rolled her eyes. "Could we wait at least a couple days before we go there? Let's just enjoy where we are and savor it before some calamity happens, like always, and tries to take it away from us?"

"Oh, I suppose!" Maggie leaned in for a quick kiss and then took Bianca's hand, leading her towards the kitchen. "Come on! I'm starving, let's eat!"

"What did you order in?" Bianca asked as she was being pulled along.

"Nothing… I cooked!"

"Oh god… the calamity! IT'S HERE!" Bianca screamed with a laugh.

Maggie wasn't as amused and kept dragging her girlfriend behind her.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Nearly three weeks had passed since that first night of heated passion that Bianca and Maggie had shared after years of waiting. They were trying their best to be home each night for each other, but some were easier than others. In the long run, it was Maggie who was suffering the most.

While Bianca had a problem wrestling her way out of meetings, it was nothing for Maggie to skip a class… a lab… an appointment at the library, to be home and waiting for Bianca. She was starting to feel the pinch of it in a couple of her classes. Her grades were reflecting her new found addiction; it was as bad as the hardest narcotic in its own way.

Love could be a cruel, all encompassing mistress.

September 11th – 6:30 PM

"Maggie, come on, I know you have to go to the library tonight!"

Maggie pressed her body tighter against Bianca's as they stood at the sink in the kitchen. Bianca was washing off plates as Maggie hugged her from behind, slowly swaying their hips from left-to-right and back again. "I know, I know… doesn't mean I WANT to go though."

"No one ever wants to, but sometimes you just have to."

"Why, Ms. Montgomery, if I didn't know better, I would say you're trying to get rid of me."

"Not at all, I would love for you to be here all the time, but if you don't get down to that library soon, you're going to flunk out of med school."

"Fine, fine," Maggie said reluctantly as she stepped away from Bianca. She turned to the stool at the butcher block, picking up her messenger bag in one fluid, twirling motion. "What are you and Miranda going to do tonight?"

"Well, Mom's show starts airing this week, and I want to send her a poem I've been working on, and I thought Miranda could do her a finger painting."

"Could we just send the great and all-powerful Erica Kane the painting from the den instead? It looks like it was done by a toddler!" she said her voice and expression, hopeful.

Bianca rolled her eyes. "Leave Portia alone. She's not going anywhere, no matter how hard you try."

"Can't blame a girl for dreaming!" Maggie slung the bag over her head, checked her pockets for keys, making sure she had everything. "Okay, I'm going to head out; I shouldn't be more than two or three hours."

"Take your time, we're not going anywhere."

"Yeah, yeah. Can I get a kiss before I go?"

Bianca smiled and glowed all at once. It still made her a bit giddy inside when Maggie asked for displays of affection. "Of course," Bianca said as she shut off the water, and turned to face her girlfriend.

Maggie smiled broadly and walked over to Bianca. She took the taller girl's hands into her own, interlaced their fingers, and leaned upwards, planting a loving kiss on her lips. As she settled back to her normal height, her eyes were closed, her smile warm. "That just never is going to get old, is it?"

"I certainly hope not!"

A small chuckle escaped Maggie's lips. "Yeah, me too. Okay, I have to get going, see you in a few!"

"Later, honey."

Maggie waved over her shoulder as she walked through the dining room, heading for the entrance hall. She could feel Bianca's eyes on her as she walked, so she made sure to add a bit more hip action than was necessary to each step until she was out of sight.

Bianca let out a little whistle. "And that, my friends, is also never going to get old," she said to no one in particular.

September 11th - 8:30 PM

"_The Biiliac Width of the average adult female is… Bianca has the perfect Biiliac Width I think… GAH! STOP THAT, STONE! STOP THAT!"_

Maggie was finding concentrating to be the hardest part of her paper. No matter what she tried, she ended up relating everything to Bianca in some way. Several times tonight she had deleted _"…such as in my girlfriend"_ or _"…just like Bianca's"_. It was getting infuriating it was happening so much.

She tried concentrating again, but to no avail. _"Damn it… how did I get this smitten with her? I've got it so bad, and it's time I own up to it."_

Sighing, she closed her book and shoved it back in her bag. She looked around the library at all the people working diligently on their papers and almost wished she was them for a moment. It only lasted for a moment though, as none of them had a Bianca Montgomery waiting for them at home.

She flashed a smile at that thought, but it quickly vanished as she finished packing up her belongings. _"This is useless… I can't even concentrate anymore… course, if I don't figure out how to concentrate soon, it's not going to matter as I'll get my tiny little American ass busted out of here."_ Sighing, yet again, she pushed away from the table she had been working at, stood up, and slung the bag over her head.

Stepping out of the library, she assessed that the night was cool, but not so much to be uncomfortable. _"You know what… I think I'm going to walk home… I need some time to think,"_ she thought to herself. She zipped up her hoodie, shoved her hands deep in her jean pockets, and started towards home, her messenger bag bouncing against her right hip.

"_So…"_ she thought as she bounced down the stairs, turning to the right, using the Eiffel Tower as her landmark, _"how am I going to break myself of this… addiction? Is that the right word even? Am I 'addicted' to her? Who cares… the bigger question is do I even want to? There are times where I think we're moving too fast, then I remember we really had years of build up!"_

She did a bounce/skipping motion down the steps to the banks of the Seine River. Not everyone would call it a smart, or safe, choice walking this path at night, but it was better then getting lost in the warrens of Paris' million side streets. _"I know I'm getting sucked up in this, and if I don't watch myself, I'm going to get sucked down so far, I'll never get to finish my dream of being a doctor, but damn it, she's like a drug I just can't get enough of!"_

Walking seemed difficult for her as she meandered and swayed. She swerved from one side of the bricked walkway to the other, seeming to lack any real sense of direction or urgency. For the most part, she kept her head down, studying the lines between the stones as she went. Her mind was clearly elsewhere to anyone that would happen to pass by, but luckily for her, that night it was all quiet along the river front.

"_So… where does this leave me? Am I still all in this? Can I even be in a full time relationship AND be in med school at the same time? Others do it, hell, some others even get married, but, then again, I'm not others… and they aren't all just discovering they may have been lying to themselves about their sexuality their entire life, either. Face it… I'm screwed. Either I find a way to balance this, or… I don't want to consider the 'or', there can't be an 'or'!"_

She passed under the bridge at Pont de Invalides, meaning the next one would be Pont de L'alma, where she would leave the river bank to ascend back to street level. She stopped for a moment and turned to watch a passing barge that had caught her eye. The sight of it took her back to a night mere months ago, at this same spot… dancing to Eric Clapton with Bianca… the night of their first date.

She smiled her lopsided smile. _"There is no 'or'… there is both, or nothing. Being a doctor was the first thing I had ever felt a burning desire to be… and Bianca is the first person I have probably ever truly loved, and not just played at it with. How can I give up either? I can't. So, the solution is simple, I strike a balance. There is always room in life for the people and things you love, it's just up to me to make that time… so, really, it IS simple; I strike that balance, or I die trying."_

Her giddiness verged on nauseating as she did a little hop in the air to turn herself back towards the stairs and ran at them full speed. _"Tomorrow… the balance starts tomorrow, but tonight… tonight is all her."_

September 11th - 9:00 PM

"Come on, honey, more paint on the paper, less on you," Bianca said with a laugh as she helped guide Miranda's handprints on to the paper.

The elevator dinged out in the hallway, which made Bianca smile as it meant Maggie was home. This was followed by the familiar sound of keys jiggling in the lock as the door opened, a messenger bag dropped unceremoniously to the floor, and a familiar head, sporting a ponytail, came around the corner into the dining room.

"Hey you two…" Maggie quickly surveyed the table, "I see we're having an arts and crafts night."

"You could say that," Bianca responded. "Your cheeks are flushed, are you okay?"

"Yeah… decided to walk home, it was a nice night."

Bianca eyed her for a moment. She knew Maggie never exerted more energy than necessary on something such as walking, but she decided to let it be. Miranda was beginning to yawn, and the little girl's paint covered hands fell to her side, drawing Bianca's attention back to her little girl. "Okay, Munchie, I think we're done. Grandma will love this!"

Maggie snickered. She couldn't help doing it every time Erica Kane was referred to as 'grandma'.

Bianca shot her a 'oh hush!' look, as she lifted Miranda out of the chair. "I'm going to take her upstairs and get her ready for bed. Are you going to be around when I'm done?"

Maggie quickly leaned over, placed a small kiss on Bianca's lips, and smiled as she pulled back.

"I'll take that as a yes… I'll be back in a bit." Bianca smiled once more and carried the ever more tired Miranda out of the room.

Maggie sat down and looked at Miranda's tiny, multi-colored handprints all over the paper in front of her. She smiled warmly and put her right hand over one of Miranda's prints, comparing the size. _"So tiny,"_ she thought, _"and with so much ahead of her."_

As Maggie removed her hand, she got an idea. She looked around the table, trying to locate blank pieces of paper. Her grin got bigger and bigger as the idea took form in her head. "Oh, she is so going to love this!" she said out loud as she got the paints ready.

September 11th, 9:45 PM

"Maggie? Where are you? I'm sorry that took so long! Her hands were a mess, I had to end up giving her a quick bath, and…" Bianca turned in to the dining room, and stopped dead in her tracks. Maggie was grinning like the cat that ate the canary and both her hands were behind her back. "What did you do?"

Maggie made an attempt to look hurt. "Bianca Montgomery! What makes you think I might have done anything?"

"Because you have that giddy-slash-mischievous look on your face, that's why," she said as she tentatively walked towards the shorter member of the pair of women.

"Well, I am cut to the quick, but, yes, I did something… and now you are also going to do it."

Bianca arched an eyebrow. "Such as what?"

Maggie's grin returned as she produced two pieces of paper from behind her back; one had a right hand print on it, the other with a left hand print on it. "You're going to match these!"

"Excuse me?" she replied with a perplexed look.

Maggie set the papers down on the dining room table. "Just come here and give me your hands."

A grin started to cross Bianca's face as she was putting it together. "Oh… OH! These are your hands aren't they?"

"Uh-huh," Maggie replied as she turned and grabbed Bianca's hands. "And you're going to put your left hand with my right, and vice-versa. Then, you'll have one, and I'll have one."

Bianca's grin grew to out of control proportions. "When did you turn into such a helpless romantic?"

Maggie was leaning Bianca forward, holding onto both of her wrists, causing her to have to look back over her shoulder to make eye-contact with the taller woman. Her face was serious, sincere. "I think it was when I got together with someone that was worth being a hopeless romantic for."

She was speechless. It was true; a member of the Kane family had been struck speechless by a romantic gesture. Her eyes glistened with the tell-tale signs of tears welling up in them.

There was no resistance from her as Maggie placed her hands in the paint and then onto the sheets of paper. After making sure they had been planted firmly, Bianca carefully removed her hands, leaving two perfect impressions. Maggie found a pen, and wrote her name under each of her hands, Bianca followed suit with her own imprints.

"There… now we'll each have one!" Maggie said cheerfully.

"I have to send Miranda's painting out for a rush framing job tomorrow, I'll send these out with them."

"Oh! That sounds like a great idea! I think I'll hang mine in my room. Where are you going to put yours?"

"In my office."

Now it was Maggie's turn to feel the tears well up. "Are you sure? That's going to look kind of odd hanging up there with all those serious paintings and sales charts."

"So? This is worth more to me than any of those things."

"You know… we are way past the wooing stage. You can just say 'bedroom… NOW' and I'll go for it," Maggie said with a devilish grin.

"What, I can't be romantic also? That's just your department now? Not everything is about getting into bed, you know."

"I know, but I just thought I would throw it out there… see if it took."

"Oh, it took," Bianca said with a laugh. She turned Maggie towards her, threw her left arm around the shorter girl's waist, and pulled her closer.

"Hey! Your hands still have paint on them, watch it!"

"It washes out… it's meant for kids… hence why I'm not surprised it attracted your attention."

Maggie's lips went narrow and menacing. "You are so going to pay for that."

"What are you going to do, short stuff?"

Maggie's hands were up by her head, trying to keep from getting paint on anything. This quickly came to an end as her right hand reached out; bopped Bianca on the nose, leaving it covered in paint, and was accompanied by her making a "BOOP!" noise.

Bianca blinked. "I am apparently in love with a five year old."

"Hey, you're the one who called me child-like first, sweetie," which was accompanied by palm slaps on both cheeks, leaving more paint.

Bianca closed her eyes. "Is this REALLY where you want to go?"

"I don't know, you tell me," she said, as she drew lines on Bianca's forehead.

"Okay, that's it, it's go time!" Bianca pronounced as she started rubbing her hands all over Maggie's face and through her hair.

Both quickly found themselves running out of paint, luckily for them, unfortunate for their clothes and the room, there was much more 'ammunition' on the table. Paint started splattering, they moved down the table so as not to get any on their own hand prints or Miranda's, but the fight quickly resumed.

Hands ran through hair… cheeks, both the face and ass variety, were smacked… clothes covered from head- to-toe… it was as if two first graders had found this lavish dining room in the heart of Paris and decided to wreck it.

As with all play fights, it was inevitable someone would trip. Bianca caught her right foot on the leg of a chair and it sent her sprawling forward, knocking Maggie backwards in the process. Bianca landed on top of the shorter girl, both of them losing all the air in their lungs in a unified 'unf' sound.

Bianca scrambled to all fours, fearful of having hurt her lover. "Are you okay?" she asked, her face covered in concern.

"I think so…" Maggie said as she opened her eyes… and immediately started laughing.

"What's so funny?" Bianca demanded.

"YOU'RE BLUE!" Maggie yelled.

"Well, yeah… and you're yellow, what'd you expect? We're covered in finger paint for crying out loud!"

Maggie kept laughing for a moment as Bianca hovered over her. Finally regaining her breath from the fall and subsequent laughter, she opened her eyes to find Bianca staring down at her with a serious expression. "What? What is it?"

Bianca placed her left hand on Maggie's right cheek, her thumb rubbing over her cheek bone. "Just when I thought you couldn't be any more beautiful to me… something happens to up the ante just that much more."

Maggie blushed, but it was undetectable in all the yellow paint obscuring her features. "The same could be said of you."

The taller girl smiled and just stared for another moment. Finally, her wits coming about her, she looked for a clean spot on the long-sleeved shirt she was wearing. Spotting the backs of the arms were clean, she first wiped her lips clean, then Maggie's. Once satisfied their lips were paint-free, she lowered her head, kissing the shorter girl deeply.

Unlike their usual kisses outside of the bedroom, this one was not tentative or bashful, it was animalistic and passionate. Their hands quickly found each other's hair, their fingers running through their paint matted tresses.

Maggie's hands only stayed there momentarily as they quickly slid down Bianca's sides to the top of her jeans. Her fingers dug into the loose fabric of Bianca's shirt that was bunched there and she pulled upwards as quickly as she could, freeing it from the denim. She kept pulling until Bianca stretched out her arms to assist Maggie in removing it entirely. Bianca quickly followed suit, doing the same for Maggie.

They were desperate for each other, their passion unlimited. Shoes were quickly kicked off, jeans removed, as they continued to roll around on the floor, leaving paint hand prints everywhere.

As a cold handful of paint clapped onto Bianca's bare back, her senses finally kicked in. She broke the never ending lip lock to mutter a few words. "Whoa… we gotta stop… this paint is not going to be good if we go any further than this…"

Maggie's breath was labored, but she nodded agreement. "Gee… how could we ever get this paint off of us, but not stop having fun… hmmmm" she darted her eyes around as if searching for an idea.

Bianca's mouth opened a little, her eyes going wide. "You saucy little minx!"

"Yep! That's me… hope you like your showers hot!" Maggie scooted out from under Bianca and bolted for her bedroom door.

Bianca grinned, leaping to her feet, quickly chasing her; leaving clothes and a room covered in paint to be cleaned at another time.

September 12th – 8:25 AM

Patrick hated going up to the apartment, remembering the embarrassment of last time, but Bianca had a full day of meetings she had to get to. His buzzing the apartment had garnered no response. Deciding he had to risk it, he headed up to see what was keeping them.

He used his key to get in, since no one had responded to his knocking; now he was getting worried. He called out the girl's names, and he thought he heard something like an 'eep', but couldn't be sure.

He cautiously moved towards the doorway to the dining room, being as silent as possible. Once there, he carefully looked around the corner, and then stopped looking, his face turning pale white, his eyes filled with horror.

Maggie walked out in to the hall, arms folded, wearing only a silk robe and her hair pulled up hurriedly in to a banana clip. "You know, Frenchie… remember the rule about you not being allowed to call after a certain hour?"

He nodded an affirmative.

"We're going to extend that to not entering the apartment before a certain hour."

He nodded an affirmative.

"Now, while you never actually SEE anything, you keep seeing the aftermath of things…"

Patrick turned an even starker shade of white.

"You don't want to see that any more, do you?"

He shook his head in the negative.

"Good boy. Now, go wait in the car for Bianca."

He nodded in the affirmative.

After he had left, Bianca stepped out in the hall. "Was that Patrick?"

"Yep."

"Did he see the dining room?"

"Yep."

"Poor man."

"Yep."


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

September 14th – 4:30 PM

"No, Kendall, I did not send the Cambias jet over JUST to deliver the painting and the poem! I may be rich now, but I'm not insane!" Bianca sucked in a quick, exasperated breath before she continued. "They had to fly over some executives anyway, and so I had the crew bring the gifts over." After a quick roll of her eyes, the younger of the Kane women continued, "Anyway, how did Mom's first show go?"

Bianca read over some papers on her desk as she absently listened to Kendall going on-and-on about their mother and her manic episodes. She resisted the urge to blurt out something about the kettle recognizing itself in the color of the pot. The raven haired woman hoped her mother would do well with her latest venture, the television talk show, _New Beginnings_, but the whole process behind it was fairly boring to her.

There were far more important things on her mind this day than videos of Erica Kane going around New York City, talking with celebrities and that was getting home on time to a certain pair of women named Mary Margaret Stone and Miranda Mona Montgomery.

She was trying her best, but some nights were harder than others, since being responsible for all of Cambias Europe was, well, full of responsibilities. Sometimes she could shirk them more than others, but her recent blanking out in a meeting, and agreeing to a proposal she hadn't thoroughly read, were starting to come back to haunt her.

It had only been a few weeks since she had agreed to Josef's proposal to combine several of the regional offices in to one, but what she hadn't noticed was the addendum for a state-of-the-art office building. To call this new facility 'grandiose' was an understatement, and her signing off on the entire proposal had set construction in to motion. Now she was trying to find a backdoor that would let her exit out of this mess which had been caused by her dreamy thoughts of Maggie, and there was seemingly no easy answer.

"Damn it, Binks, are you even listening to me?"

"Huh? Oh… yeah, yeah… Mayor Ed Koch… go on!" Bianca said as enthusiastically as she could possibly muster so as not to discourage her sister from continuing.

"Bianca, if you're busy, I'm just blathering on here, if you have something you need to do, then do it. We can talk later."

"Are you sure you don't mind?" Bianca asked with some trepidation.

"Not at all, I do know what it's like to run a company, after all."

Bianca smiled. "That you do! Thanks, Kendall. I just have a small crisis here that needs my full attention sadly."

"No problem, Sis. Give my darling Miranda a kiss, and… tell Maggie I said 'hi'."

"Um… okay…" Bianca's eyes grew a tad bit wider as she answered. Kendall never had really acknowledged what existed between Bianca and Maggie before, so this was a new sensation.

"Oh! Before I let you go, have you decided about coming home for Christmas yet?"

Bianca again rolled her eyes again at her sister, a very common occurrence any time they talked. "Not yet, Kendall. It's only September, god only knows what will happen between now and then. And I also have to see what Maggie has planned."

"Okay, but just know everyone would love it if you all could come."

"We'll see, Kendall. Now, I really have to get going, love to everyone for me, okay? And… even Greenlee."

There was a slight hesitation on the phone across the Atlantic, the wounds of Ryan Lavery's death still fresh in everyone's minds. "I will Binks. Miss you and love you, Binks."

Bianca hit the button to end the call and tossed her headset on the desk in front of her. She leaned back into the deep cushioning of her chair, tilted it so it reclined and stared at the ceiling while exhaling. She loved her sister dearly, but talking to her was always a draining experience. And now was certainly not the time for draining.

She'd messed up, and she'd messed up big. Josef, for all his seeming meekness, had really left her over a barrel. The construction crews had been ready to go; she signed, they started clearing land. She wasn't even aware of it until Ethan Cambias had called her from the American offices to ask why there was a sudden delay in some other construction projects.

After looking into it, she had found the problem. She still couldn't convince herself that Josef was a conniving person, but after talking with Patrick about it, she learned he had tried pulling this same project off several times during Alexander Cambias' reign as the head of the company. The motivation is what got her, the silly stupid motivation. Waiting all these years, trying to pull this off multiple times, and for what? His family owned an office supply company that stood to gain the contract to furnish the building.

No one before Bianca had ever been certain that was what was happening, they just knew it didn't make financial sense to build this new building and shift so much of their staff around. When she actually remembered to pay attention, Bianca was as sharp a business person as anyone else in the company, if not sharper, and she had figured it out.

Using Patrick's security contacts, they had backtracked it all and ferreted out the scheme. Josef had been fired, but the contracts with her signature stood. The company was facing to lose as much, if not more, if she broke those work orders. Now she was spending her days and nights trying to figure out how to stop this problem before it got worse. Before the board of directors got full hint of this and she would be stuck in stuffy meetings for weeks, being grilled about her incompetence.

The conundrum was filling every corner of her life, even her private, secluded moments with her newly minted girlfriend, Maggie. More than once, Maggie had come looking for her in the middle of the night to find her in the dining room, pouring over papers, in the wee hours of the morning.

She was kicking her feet without realizing it, slowly spinning her chair in a counter-clockwise motion. She had been so lost in thought over her predicament, she hadn't even noticed she was doing it. She shouldn't have been surprised though that when she snapped out of her melancholy haze what she was staring at: two very childlike hand prints on a piece of paper, in a bright silver frame.

It was the newest addition to the art collection that hung in her office, and though it held no monetary value, like the renaissance piece that hung next to it, it was her favorite in the room. Her grin grew, thinking back to just a few nights past. The playfulness, the passion… it was still intoxicating to think about… she was drifting back, back to laying on that floor, staring at the most beautiful woman in the world…

"Ms. Montgomery?" said a voice over the intercom.

Bianca sighed and spun her chair around to answer. "Yes, Aurélia?"

"Ms. Stone would like you to give her a call, and I quote, 'whenever you get the hell off the phone with your beanpole of a sister'."

Bianca smiled. "Thank you, I'll call her now." She picked up the phone and hit speed dial to call Maggie's mobile.

"My God you two can talk!"

"Hello to you too."

"Yeah, yeah… what's shakin' soul sister?"

"Last time I checked, I wasn't very soul."

"You know, if you're going to date me, you really have to learn to keep up with the witty banter."

"Oh? When did you start doing witty banter?"

"I…" there was a pause, "Oh, I flippin' hate you."

"No you don't, you love me, and don't even try denying it."

"FINE! So… what's the latest in the Valley of the Pines? Anyone dead? Kidnapped? Taken prisoner by a wandering band of gypsies and forced to dance to the organ grinder's music because they lost their little monkey who usually does it?"

There was a pause from Bianca's end of the phone. "Why am I in love with you again?"

"Because I have a killer ass."

"Oh… I knew it was something," Bianca said as dryly as possible so as not to convey her wide smile. "No, nothing else going on, everyone is still saddened by Ryan's death, and I guess Mom's first episode of _New Beginnings_ was a 'raging success' according to her."

Maggie quickly regretted making a joke about dead people, forgetting that Ryan had just passed. "Well, I'm glad your mom's show went so well. Are they sending us a tape of it?"

"Are you kidding? Of course they are, and I am sure my mom will want copious notes on our every thought… hell, she may send a video crew to tape us watching the tape, it could become a whole thing."

"Please no… really, for the love of Pete, tell me you're kidding."

"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not… we are talking about Erica Kane here."

"True enough. So, are you going to be home for dinner?"

Bianca sighed. "I don't know. I want to be, but I'm swamped. Could you just order a pizza or something and I can heat it up if I'm late?"

"Sure thing, Boss. Just try not to be too late, okay?"

"I'll do my best… I gotta go, love you."

"Love you too."

September 14th – 4:50 PM

Maggie closed her mobile phone and then lifted it to her lips, bouncing the hinge against them as she appeared deep in thought. She hated Bianca not being home for dinner, but how could she argue with work? She really couldn't, and she would never attempt to.

She glanced over at Miranda who was playing under a tree in the park. This was their daily ritual now when Maggie was done with class: They'd head over to the park, play for an hour or so, and then run home to have dinner with Bianca. Even more than for herself, she hated it when Bianca couldn't be with Miranda for dinner; it was one of the few times each day they got to see each other.

As she watched the little girl bouncing her head side-to-side, a plan began to formulate in her brain. A smile crept across her face just before she opened the phone and placed another call. "Hey, Frenchie, I need a favor."

September 14th – 6:30 PM

Bianca sighed. She hated this. She hated being in her office at 6:30 because it meant she wasn't home with Maggie and Miranda.

On another level though, she did find herself becoming more and more comfortable with her position as the head of a huge company. Yes, she had made a mistake she was trying to correct now, but she'd be lying if she didn't admit it was almost fun in some twisted way.

She was quickly learning that all business is like a game. She sat high in her tower, moving the pieces, trying to gain the best advantage and bring home that win everyone desired. Make money, you win; lose money, you lose. It was a simple principle, but elusive all at the same time. And while she never thought she would get into it, she was starting to. Those wins felt awfully good sometimes.

She could see how people might get addicted to that rush, that high, but with two beautiful women always waiting for her at home, she knew where her priorities lie.

Placing another manila folder on the 'done' pile, she grabbed one more from the 'to be done' pile that never seemed to decrease. She flipped it open, leaned back in her chair, and prepared to try to stay awake as she read up on how to get around early termination fees.

The door to her office flung open, Aurélia racing in, her face flush. "Ms. Montgomery! I think the board of directors figured out what happened, they're all in your conference room wanting to talk to you!"

Bianca looked over the folder at her frazzled assistant. "Did they say that's why they're here?"

"No… but they don't look happy," Aurélia said while wringing her hands.

"Aurélia, they're elderly business men… they never look happy." With a heavy sigh, she put the folder down, got up, and grabbed her suit jacket. "In the conference room you said?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Okay, you go and try to calm down; I'll go see what this is all about."

Aurélia nodded her head vigorously before turning and exiting the room.

Bianca walked over to the door to the conference room, placed a hand on the door knob and took a deep breath. _"You can do this, Bianca… you knew this might happen, now you just have to step up and be held accountable."_ She took a deep breath as she turned the handle and swung the door wide to reveal… a darkened room, lit only with a few candles.

It took her eyes a few seconds to adjust to the low lighting, but then she was able to fully appreciate it. Maggie was standing next to Bianca's normal chair at the head of the conference table, Miranda's smile beamed, even in this low light, as she sat perched on top of phone books in the chair. The candles were on the table, one chair on each side had a paper plate in front of it, and in the very middle was a pizza box.

"Hey there, stranger!" Maggie said with an enormous grin.

"Hey there 'ranger!" mimicked Miranda.

Bianca could feel the tears in the bottom of her eyes welling up as she walked over and scooped her daughter in to her arms. "Hey there yourself, Munchkin! What did you and Auntie Maggie do here?"

Miranda could only giggle as Maggie answered for them both. "Well, we both thought," Maggie said as she stepped closer so that Miranda was between the two of them, "that Mommy really should be able to have fresh, hot pizza with us."

"YEAH! PIZZA!" Miranda said enthusiastically as she put her arms above her head, causing both Bianca and Maggie to laugh at the little girl's antics.

"And, let me guess, you roped Patrick and Aurélia in to helping you with your devious plan?"

"But of course," Maggie said with her lopsided smile that Bianca always found irresistible.

Bianca moved to help her daughter get into the chair at the head of table, but before she could go far, Maggie grabbed her wrist, causing the taller girl to spin back towards her.

"Just a sec, kay?" Bianca looked at her quizzically as Maggie fished something out of her right front pocket. "Turn around."

Bianca stared at Maggie, not sure what was up, but she knew she couldn't resist that wistful, reassuring smile Maggie was using on her. She turned so her back was to the shorter woman, and she felt Maggie's petite hands encircle her, placing a silver necklace with a heart on it around her neck. "Oh… OH! Is this a date?"

"Mmhmm… might not be the most romantic date ever, but a date none the less."

Bianca lifted her right hand to the silver heart, covered it with her palm and smiled before she turned to face Maggie once again.

"That is… if it's okay with you. I mean, you are still at work and all, but I," the remainder of her sentence was cut short by Bianca's lips pressing into hers.

"That answer enough?" she asked as she pulled away.

"Um… yeah… I think so!"

Miranda giggled as she was given the seat at the head of the long conference room table, and the older women took their seats across from each other to enjoy their family dinner date.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Time was flying by for the former Pine Valley residents. In the weeks following their impromptu conference room dinner date, Bianca being home for the evening meal was becoming rarer and rarer. Miranda would try her best to stay awake to see "Mommy", but she rarely ever made it to that increasingly late hour.

The Cambias board of directors had finally caught onto the office building debacle, and between trying to get out of the contracts and answering endless questions, it wasn't unusual for Bianca not be home before 11:00 PM any more. It was what had to be done, but it wasn't easy on any of the three women involved.

More than once Maggie had missed a class in her efforts to help Bianca with Miranda, and it was catching up with her again. Just as her grades had started to rise, they were once more crashing down due to a lack of sleep and time. She was keeping this to herself for the time being, as she knew Bianca didn't need any more stress, but at some point she was going to have to tell her.

It was astounding how one moment of day dreaming in a board meeting could cause this much chaos.

October 7th, 11:16 PM

Bianca opened the door to the penthouse as quietly as she could, not wanting to wake anyone that may be sleeping. It didn't matter though as a 3' tall girl came running at her, full speed, from the den.

"MOMMY!" Miranda squealed as she attacked Bianca's knees.

"Hey, Munchie, what are you still doing up?"

"She has that Kane stubbornness streak in her; she was up and out of bed fifty times before I finally gave in," said Maggie as she walked into the hall from the library, her arms crossed over her comfy robe's chest area, hair pulled back in a messy attempt at clipping it.

Bianca rolled her eyes, returning her gaze to the little girl who had now leaped up into her arms. "You have to stop this, Munchie. You want to grow up strong and smart don't you?" 

"Yeah, like you, Mommy!"

"Well, some would debate the 'smart' part, honey," she said with a laugh. "But no matter what, you need to get your sleep."

"But I want you to tuck me in!"

"Doesn't Aunt Maggie do it right?" Bianca said with a sly wink to her companion.

"NO! She pulls the covers too high!"

Maggie rolled her eyes. "I am such a beast, I swear."

A little blush passed over Bianca's face as her mind went to a totally different place than Maggie had meant it to. "Well, why don't we go upstairs and I can show her how to do it right, and then she can do it the way you like from now on?"

Miranda dropped her chin to her chest and fidgeted with her hands. "But I 'anna you to do it every night, Mommy."

Bianca sighed and tried to maneuver herself so she could look into her little daughter's eyes. "Honey, we've talked about this, Mommy has a lot of work to do right now, but I will be home as often as I can, okay?"

Sensing the frustration rising, Maggie tried to intercede and cut off any grumpiness that may ensue. "Come on, Miranda, I really want to learn how to tuck you in correctly, okay? And I know I'm not your Mom, but I'll try my best, alright?"

"Okay," came the simple, terse reply from the little girl.

October 7th, 11:50 PM

"It's getting tougher every night, Bianca. She doesn't want to go to bed until you get home. Then she doesn't make it, and I end up carrying her to bed, so the next day she's angry with ME all day because I didn't 'let' her stay up to see you."

Bianca sighed as she walked into her bedroom via the bathroom that adjoined to her daughter's room. "I know, Maggie, but what am I supposed to do?"

"Tell the board to suck it up and they're going to have a new building on their hands."

"Maggie…" Bianca let out a heavy sigh, "I'm glad you think it's so easy, but it's not." She threw her suit jacket over the back of the chaise lounge and promptly fell into the richly adorned seat herself. "The whole thing is a cluster of a mess, and I don't know how we're ever going to get completely out of it, so now I'm trying to minimize the damage."

"What about the damage being done here at home?" Maggie asked as she folded her arms again, and took a defiant posture.

Bianca looked up with an exasperated look. "Where is this coming from?"

"Where is what coming from?"

"You being pissed off at me for doing my job!"

"I'm pissed off at you doing the job at the expense of your daughter… and us!"

"And everything I do at that job is for her, if you hadn't noticed. I'm her proxy until she is 18; I am trying to protect her future."

"At the cost of the present."

"Could we not do this now, seriously? I'm tired, I just want to take a shower and go to bed."

"Well when do you propose we talk then? When you come home for dinner? Oh, that's right; you're never here for that any more."

Bianca stood up and crossed to the shorter woman, a wry smile crossing her lips. "Come here," she said in a commanding whisper.

Maggie started to back away, a child-like expression of grumpiness passing over her. "No," she spluttered out, her voice matching the look on her face of a child knowing they've gone too far.

Bianca lurched across the room, pulling Maggie in to a hug that was not returned. "You're so cute when you miss me."

"Shut your mouth, I do not miss you, I'm angry with you."

"Mmhmm… of course you are," Bianca cooed as she turned her head and rested her left cheek on the top of Maggie's head.

"Alright… fine… I miss you… happy?"

Bianca pulled back a little so she could look down into Maggie's eyes. "Of course I'm not happy you miss me, I want to be here with you and Miranda more than anything, but I don't want you getting truly angry with me over something I have so little control over at the moment."

"I know… I… it's just…" Maggie finally unfolded her arms and started playing absent-mindedly with the buttons on Bianca's pinstriped blouse, "I… it took us this long to get here, ya know? And now that we're here…"

"I'm never here… I know."

"Yeah," Maggie responded in a hoarse whisper. "Do you realize we haven't even slept in the same bed this week?"

"I know, and I hate that. But by the time I get home, you've been asleep, and I'm worried about waking you up, so I just come up here and let you be."

"Or I find you on the couch when I get up to take care of Miranda… or at the dining room table… I especially liked when I found you sitting on the stairs, leaning against the railing."

Bianca blushed. "Yeah, I sat down to stare at the tower for a moment and relax, and… sorta passed out."

"Yeah… you did." There was an awkward pause as Maggie bit her lower lip, and her fingers continued to play with the button that was second from the collar. "I'm… sorry I snapped at you."

"It's okay… I love that fiery Stone-attitude of yours."

"I know, but it's still no excuse for getting angry with you for doing your job."

"You have to trust me, Maggie, there is nowhere in the world I would rather be than right here with the two of you… especially like this… quiet… you in my arms… we have been waiting so long for this, Maggie, and I promise, as soon as I can, it'll be like this all the time."

"I know, I think it just got to me, ya know?"

Bianca stared at the ashamed Maggie standing, wrapped in her arms, as she tilted her head to the right, letting her hair fall over her shoulder. "Maggie, have I… have I told you how this whole thing came about?"

Maggie looked up at her. "Just that you had glossed over something in the paperwork and were caught off-guard. Why?"

The taller girl threw her head back and laughed while saying "Oh God… okay," she looked down at Maggie and grabbed her hands, walking backwards towards the chaise lounge. "Sit down, I think it's time you know what exactly led to all of this."

They fell into the lounge and Bianca turned so one leg was up on the seat, the other on the floor. "Do you remember…" she scrunched up her face as she thought of the exact day, "August 23rd?"

"August 23rd…" the shorter girl said, screwing up her own face as she tried to recall the information. Then it flooded back to her… the day after they had made love for the first time, and a girl in her class had to poke her with a pen to shake her out of her daydream. Maggie blushed. "Um… yeah… kinda hard to forget."

"Well… I…" Bianca looked up at the ceiling for some sort of guidance, "I kinda… well… I couldn't get it out of my head all day… and so while we were having a board meeting, where Josef put the proposal in front of me… I wasn't exactly thinking about business, if you know what I mean…"

"Oh."

"Oh? All you have to say is 'oh'?"

"Well… give me a minute to absorb this. So, what you're saying is… you potentially lost millions of dollars… thinking about me… naked…" Maggie sat on the lounge facing forward, her arms crossed over her chest, her right leg crossed over her left knee, her bare leg kicking back and forth absent-mindedly.

"Basically… yeah."

"Wow."

Bianca furrowed her brow. "Wow, what?"

"I am SO calling _Playboy_ tomorrow. I figure for a couple of million they're getting a hell of a bargain!"

Bianca grabbed the pillow that was behind her and whacked Maggie up the side of her head with it, knocking the shorter, laughing girl over.

"I'm glad you find this so funny!"

"Oh come on, Bianca," Maggie said as she righted herself again, "you lost millions… MILLIONS… over the idea of me… naked… who wouldn't be flattered?"

"Well…" Bianca scooted closer. She reached up with her right hand and undid the clip holding Maggie's hair up, letting it fall onto her shoulders. "I think I got a bargain if you ask me."

Maggie smiled coyly. "I thought you were tired."

"I was… then I realized just how much you're worth to me."

"You're smooth Montgomery."

"I know," said the taller girl as she leaned in and nibbled on Maggie's neck. "Still mad at me?" she asked between nibbles.

"Ask me in the morning… right now, I feel like taking a shower… wasn't that where you were headed?"

Bianca smiled into Maggie's neck. "Worth every cent…"

October 8th, 7:20 AM

Maggie stirred in the bed; she smiled without opening her eyes, and reached out with her left hand to find… an empty bed next to her.

She sighed.

Rolling over onto her back, she sat up, wrapping the sheet around her as she did. She did a sleepy shuffle walk to the bathroom door to find light pouring out of the cracks around it. She knocked.

Bianca opened the door, her hair pulled back in a pony tail, one of her customary dark skirt-suits already on. "Hey."

"It's Saturday," Maggie said with her left eye closed, and the right one squinting against the light.

"I know," Bianca said as she gave Maggie a kiss on the cheek and moved past her to head towards her closet. "But, I have to go in for a couple of hours; I should be home by mid-afternoon."

Maggie shuffled back to the bed and plopped down at the foot of it, watching her girlfriend get ready to leave. "Fine… if you have to, you have to."

Bianca stopped what she was doing, and took a deep breath. She knew that tone, it spoke volumes. She walked over and plopped down next Maggie. "I'm sorry."

"I know… and I know you have to… I did actually listen to what you had to say last night."

"Yeah… but it still doesn't make this any easier."

"Tell me about it."

The two girls sat there silently for a moment, neither looking at the other, just looking straight ahead at the dresser until Bianca finally said something. "Maggie?"

"Yeah?"

"Move in with me."

Maggie sat there for a moment, not speaking. "Um… B? I kinda already live with you."

"No, I know, I mean… move in here… move into this room with me."

"Okay… still not getting the point."

Bianca turned to face her lover. She reached up and played with Maggie's hair, pushing it back so it didn't cover so much of her face. "Look… we agreed early on you would stay in your room to give you space, but now that space is working against us. If you share this room with me, well, then we know where we'll find each other every night, won't we?"

"But you already know where to find me."

"Yeah, but it's not the same. If you move in here, then… then it's more real. Then we know that no matter what, we're a couple, and no matter how rough things are, we'll always have this room… together."

Maggie said nothing for a few moments, and Bianca's nervousness became more and more obvious. "Did I… did I go too far in asking?"

"No, it's just…" Maggie turned her head to look at Bianca. "I've only ever lived with one other lover… and we know how that went."

"Oh," Bianca said as she pulled her hand back. "I got you… well… I hope you don't mind that I asked, and…"

"No Bianca, it's not that, I'm not upset you asked, I just… can I have a little time to think about it?"

"Of course! I did just kind of spring it on you."

Bianca's mobile chirped with an incoming text message. "That'll be Patrick, I need to go."

Both women stood up, gave each other a tender kiss, and stared into one another's eyes. "Really Bianca, I'm flattered, I just need to think, okay?"

Bianca smiled and cupped Maggie's left cheek with her right hand. "Of course… I'll see you later, okay?"

Maggie raised her left hand and placed it over Bianca's. "Of course, now scoot, I need to get Munchkin going for the day."

Bianca gave Maggie's forehead a quick kiss and she bolted out the door, picking up her suit jacket as she went.

Maggie stood alone in the center of the immense room and looked around at the rich décor. The dark colors, the velvety fabrics, the throw pillows scattered hither-and-fro. It was a room worthy of a palace, and Bianca was its queen.

Why did it suddenly seem so small?

Maggie reached up and stroked her throat. It was feeling increasingly tight, and air didn't seem to be getting to her lungs. This normally spacious room suddenly felt like a very small, confining prison to her, and all she wanted to do was run from it.

Bianca had been right; this would solve a lot of their problems. It would put them in guaranteed contact every night, but was forced closeness a solution to this seeming problem they were having? Would spending every night in the same bed bring the closeness they were lacking at this time?

"She's not Jonathon…she's Bianca, and she loves you with her entire heart…" she mumbled to herself. "… And she's not your mother… this isn't your parents… this is you and her, nothing says this will go badly… just think about it Stone…"

She gave the room another quick once-over, gave a little shudder and shuffled off to wake up Miranda for a day of play.


End file.
